Dare Me
by Unwritten Whispers
Summary: Cassie Uley, named Casper by Paul when they were only 5, moves back home to become a teacher in Forks. Visiting her cousin Sam, she runs into Paul once again - after moving away to another state because of him when she was only 15. Something's going on with him though, and he finds it difficult to phase back in ever since he hears that she's moving home... this is a Porn With Plot!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I don't own Twilight, or any of the characters from Twilight – all I own are the OCs…**

**Also just a heads' up – this chapter is rated M… more so like it's rated x – between two 15-year-olds!**

Chapter One

_Standing on the porch of the little tiny cottage looking house, fifteen-year-old Paul Lahote scratched the back his neck. His left hand was bleeding from breaking that one kid's nose and punching him repeatedly until Jared and Jacob finally pulled him off. Normally he wouldn't have bothered to get into that fight, but it was her tears that did it. He always picked on her, and he always called her names, but not once had she ever cried because of it. She used to turn red, and she'd ball her hands up into fists and tell him to fuck off, but not once had she ever cried when he was mean towards her. And he started being a jerk towards her from the moment they started talking and he realized that she was different from the rest of them._

_ Everybody on the rez was mean towards her. Well not the adults, and not her cousin and his friends, and she had very little friends of their own age, but all of the other kids around their age liked to pick on her because she was different – she was pale and didn't belong in La Push pretending to be one of them. He was always the biggest asshole too, always bringing it to her attention she didn't belong there. Jared always bitched at him for that too, and then after slapping him for being a dick Jared would always run to her side to make sure she was okay._

_ Jared was her friend, despite how his own best friend treated her. That was probably why she put up with Paul as much as she did, and that was why Jacob, Embry, and Quil slowly started to come around to her too. She and Seth were already friends, even though he was a year younger than them, because his sister Leah was dating her cousin Sam. But Paul – Paul refused to be nice to her. When the others talked to her in school he'd only snort and walk away, and whenever Jared would bring her to the beach to hang out with them he'd make comments about how much her white skin was blinding him._

_ But not once did she ever cry. And despite how much all of his friends feared Sam Uley, not once did Paul ever worry about Sam coming after him. Sam overheard him once, when he and Cassie were twelve, and the sixteen year old heard the way that Paul called her a white bitch and then told her to go and look for her real parents. Paul actually feared for his life that day. But Cassie jumped in front of him and told her cousin that she didn't care what he said about her because he was just an asshole, and when Leah started to hit him for being such a little prick Cassie defended him against her too – pulling Leah and Sam away. Later that night she found him at Jared's house, and actually apologized to him._

_ It confused the hell out of him, and he never did understand it, but from that moment on he knew that he couldn't tease her in the same way he did before – not after she kept her cousin and his psychotic girlfriend from killing him. He continued to call her certain names, and he continued to pick on her, but it was never in the same hateful way as before._

_ Now when he called her Casper, a name he gave her from when they were only five, he didn't feel his blood boiling in the same way that it used to. He continued to ignore her completely in school, and he still ignored it when the other kids picked on her and told her to go back to where she belonged, but now when she came over to Jared's house while he was there he didn't groan in disgust and leave. He continued to sit on the couch, and let her watch TV with him. _

_ It wasn't that he was her friend suddenly, and he didn't care what happened to her, but he couldn't just go back to wanting to actually hit her after she stepped in front of him once her cousin lifted his hand. If Sam didn't have such great reflexes, Cassie would have caught that punch directly to her face… and that was something that had Paul slightly respecting her in the littlest sense._

_ So, when leaving school that day his blood began to boil when he saw how his classmate stood there, trembling, with tears in her eyes as one of their classmates mocked her for being white. Casper, he called her – 'would anybody really care if Casper just disappeared for good?' – and when he saw the way the prick actually hit Cassie's books out of her hands, he was already by her side before Jared was._

_ And now he was here; standing on her porch with a bruised and bleeding hand while her books were in his other hand. She ran once Paul shoved the kid picking on her; with her hands wiping at her tears she took off, not bothering to collect her fallen things. And by the time Jared and Jacob managed to pull him off of the guy for picking on the same girl he liked to pick on, for the same reasons, Paul began collecting her things into his arms and told his friends he'd catch up with them later._

_ She defended him against Sam three years before, and now it only seemed right that he walked to her house to make sure she was alright._

_ After all, she never cried before._

_ Taking in a deep breath, and deciding to just get this over with, Paul shifted her books to his bleeding hand and brought up his right hand to rap on the screen door. It was silent, and he fixed the strap of his backpack over his right shoulder to keep it from falling, and he called out her name hoping that she was at her house and not at her cousin's. Ever since Sam started acting weird two years before, and broke up with Leah for her cousin Emily, Cassie took to bouncing between him and Leah. Seth told them that she made sure Leah knew how much she still loved her, but Jared told him that Cassie felt guilty because she actually liked Emily. She admitted that her cousin was obviously much happier with Emily than he was when with Leah._

_ "Uley!" he called out again, refusing to call her Cassie. And it was obvious that now wasn't the time to call her Casper._

_ He was just about to give up and leave her books on the porch then walk to Jared's house, but the door finally opened. With a freshly washed face, and her scarlet dyed hair tied back into a sloppy bun instead of falling around her face like it usually did, Cassie stared at him blankly, "Paul, what are you doing here?"_

_ Lifting his hand to show the books he was holding, Paul said, "I wanted to see if you were okay."_

_ "Oh…" confused by his kindness, Cassie opened the door and then stepped to the side to grant him access into her house. They grew up with each other all their lives, and they've known each other from when they were still in diapers, but not once had he ever been inside of her house at an age where he could remember it. "I'll get some stuff to clean up your hand."_

_ Glancing down at the bruised and bleeding hand when he realized that she noticed it when he lifted her books, Paul watched as she disappeared down a hallway. Standing there awkwardly, not really knowing what to do now that he was here, he decided to just sit on the couch. Looking around at someone's home made you friends – and he didn't want to be her friend. She helped him out once, and now he was helping her out. Hopefully after this he could go back to hating her without guilt._

_ "Thanks," she said, returning to the living room with a bottle of alcohol in her hands, and a washcloth, "For bringing my books. I didn't even realize I forgot them."_

_ Placing the books onto the couch, Paul shrugged off his backpack as well. Still dressed in the same clothes from school that day, Cassie's eyes were tinged with red; the proof that she'd been crying. "He's an ass," he ended up saying suddenly, watching as she knelt down in front of him between his legs to take his hand into hers._

_ Making a loud scoffing sound, Cassie kept her face down but she rolled her bright blue eyes up to look at him, "But he's right, isn't he? What he said today is no different than anything you've ever said to me too, Paul."_

_ Hissing in pain when the alcohol being poured onto his open cuts began to sting and burn at him, Paul bit back the urge to fly his hand away from her. He refused to look like a wimpy bitch! "Yeah, but you never cried before when I said it," this time her eyes looked back down at what she was doing to his hand, and he frowned when he heard her mutter something beneath her breath, "What?"_

_ Sighing, she still refused to look up at him, but this time she spoke a little louder, "Just because you haven't seen the tears doesn't mean I didn't cry. I was just frustrated to begin with, and I couldn't hold it in until I got home like I usually do…"_

_ "Oh…" his face fell, and something inside of Paul began to feel sorry for her._

_ "Ashley and her stupid band of giggling bitches kept constantly reminding me how ugly I was all morning, and then during the fifteen minute break I had to put up with Josh asking me out because of some sort of dare, and then at lunch I overheard some of the older kids coming up with more ridiculous theories about my birth parents. I don't know anything about them other than they gave me up for adoption at birth, and that they were both obviously white, but I'm pretty sure that neither of them were ghosts. And then in my last class I heard Marcus and his friends snickering because of the rumors that my parents might move – they seem to think my parents are going to try to trade me for a real kid because of how much shame I bring to them. And by the time Larry them got to me outside I was already annoyed, and I got a little scared by the way Larry kept moving in closer to me. You may have been an asshole to me all our lives, Paul, but not once have I ever felt threatened to have you so close to me. I could feel his breath on my face, and when he hit my books away, I got scared that he was actually going to hit me…"_

_ Her breath hitched when she finally stopped talking, and Paul noticed that she stopped cleaning his hand. She was still kneeling between his legs, and her chest was heaving, and she sounded almost broken. He was seething inside at the idea of how threatened she felt by the asshole after school, and he began to wonder how many other kids at the school got too close to her face to make her automatically assume it meant she was going to get hit._

_ "Sorry," she said finally, and when she sniffled softly and then brought her hands to her eyes, Paul realized she was crying again. "I – I didn't mean to vent. I know that you don't care about any of this," taking hold of his hand once more, Cassie began to wipe at it with the washcloth; making sure to clean it off nicely. "And thanks for what you did today. I guess this makes us even now, and now you can go back to hating me in peace."_

_ He flinched at the bitterness in her tone, and his eyes began to flash with guilt when he realized that she was right – he did help her out today so he could start acting just like that asshole after school without any guilt. So why did he feel worse suddenly?_

_ "Nothing's broken," she ended up announcing, releasing his hand and then standing up and avoiding looking directly at him. He realized in that moment that she was ashamed to be caught crying. Just how many times did she lock herself in the safety of her own home just to cry without being seen? How many times was he the reason of those tears?_

_ "His nose is," he ended up snickering darkly, thinking back to how good it felt to beat the shit out of someone for a good cause rather than just because they cut him in the lunch line._

_ Cassie gasped, shocked to hear that Paul broke Larry's nose, but she immediately shook it off and leaned forward to pick the alcohol bottle and washcloth off the floor. "Right… well, thanks for stopping by and bringing my books… and for defending me."_

_ Realizing that she was dismissing him, that this was the end of their odd little conversation, Paul stood up with his backpack and nodded his head. He took a step forward to leave, to forget about her almost little vent session so that he could go back to hating her in peace, but then he turned his head to her, "Your parents are thinking of moving?"_

_ "Yeah," she nodded, looking confused as to why he was still there, "Mom got a job offer over at the hospital in Jackson Hole, and Dad's tired of hearing everyone on the rez making comments 'cause they adopted a white kid instead of a little brown kid to match him and Mom. She has a week to let them know her decision, and if she takes it we'll be gone by the end of the month. Sam's not too happy that we're leaving, but I'm honestly just happy to not have to deal with anyone anymore. I am gonna miss Jared though."_

_ He saw the innocent little pout on her face when she mentioned missing Jared, and in that moment something inside of him came alive. In a simple step Paul had his body pressed against Cassie's and their mouths were collided. The bottle of alcohol and washcloth fell to the ground in surprise, and when she gasped in shock he took advantage of it by gingerly entering his tongue into her mouth. She stood there tense, unsure of what to do as he wrapped his hands around her waist and moved his tongue against hers. The way her tongue cringed away before slowly poking at his in a curious gesture told him that this was her first kiss, and something about her inexperience in something as innocent as kissing, at fifteen years old, had him smirking against her mouth._

_ It was his smirk that made her snap out of her shock. Pushing him away from her, Cassie actually brought her hand up to her mouth to wipe at it, "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" she cried out, staring up at him in what looked almost like fear._

_ At first Paul was confused as to why she was afraid. He'd never done anything to physically threaten her before, and she just admitted that much to him as well, and it wasn't as if he was rough with the kiss. Worried that he pushed her against her will, and that he forced the kiss upon her unwillingly, Paul found himself wondering what the hell possessed him to do such a thing anyway. "I – I don't know…" he admitted sheepishly._

_ This time the tears that burned her eyes stung at Paul because he knew he was the one who caused it, and this time she didn't bother to hide them from him. "You – I thought you were different!" she screamed at him. Her voice sounded almost raw, and it had Paul wincing. "I know you don't like me, Paul Lahote, but I never thought you'd stoop so low as to accept the dare. So, what do you get for kissing me, huh – $20?"_

_ His jaw dropped at once and he instantly remembered that she mentioned something about having to spend the fifteen minute break earlier with some guy asking her out because of some dare. "No!" he shook his head at once, "Uley, no, I-"_

_ She thought he kissed her as part of the same dare from earlier, and as she stepped away from him, Paul could see the actual hurt in her face. She knew they weren't friends, and she knew that he'd never like her, but she didn't think he'd take it this far. "Just leave, Paul!" she shouted at him, not bothering to hide her tears at this point, "Just get the fuck out of my house!"_

_ Every time he tried to open his mouth to explain that he kissed her because he wanted to, despite how fucked up it was, Cassie would start to scream again for him to just go away. He began to grow frustrated because he couldn't get a word in, and in the end it had him running both hands through his hair frustratingly. Giving up after two minutes of trying to calm her down, Paul finally grabbed his backpack and stormed out of the house without looking back._

_ But the guilt continued to eat away at him. He didn't even know about the dare going around the school. He didn't know that the others kids were turning it into some sort of game to see which one of them the white girl on the rez would foolishly go out with, and the idea of people actually stooping so fucking low just to hurt her had him seeing red._

_ He liked to make fun of her because of her skin color, and he was the one who started the name Casper for her, and he – stopping at the end of the Uleys' driveway, Paul's face faltered and his throat went dry… he was no different from the other kids at the school._

_ He made her cry._

_ But instead of making her cry outside of the school like that asshole did earlier, he made her run home and lock herself up in her bedroom so she could cry in solace. _

_ "Uley?" entering the house without bothering to knock on the front door, Paul saw the books still on the couch where he left them. The bottle of alcohol and washcloth were also still on the floor where Cassie dropped them. Hearing the muffled sounds of somebody sniffling, Paul slowly followed the noise until he reached an open bedroom door. _

_ Not once had he ever thought of her as ugly. He constantly teased her for being white, and he was always one of the assholes that liked to rub it in her face that she was adopted by the Uleys because her real parents didn't want her, and he constantly reminded her that she was an outsider, but he couldn't remember a time where he ever actually mocked her for being ugly or hideous. He never thought it was his place to lie about such a thing._

_ Sure, he hated her… but not even he could deny that she was pretty._

_ She was pale with blue eyes, and her hair had naturally been blonde but she took to dying it when he called her Goldie one time. Casper was a nickname she couldn't shake off because she couldn't dye her skin, but she tried to fix everything else that everyone saw wrong with her. Her hair was scarlet colored now, because she looked like a zombie when she made it black, and she mostly wore sunglasses to keep her eyes covered, but Paul would never admit to anyone that he actually liked the shade of blue her eyes were – that was why he stopped teasing them altogether; hoping she'd stop wearing shades to hide them. Her eyes weren't a normal blue – they were as blue as the rain. And now that she was crying, her eyes had him shivering._

_ "Uley?"_

_ Looking up from where she was sitting on her bed with her knees pulled up to her chest, Cassie's face fell and her eyes widened in slight fear, "W-What are you doing in here? I-I'll scream, Paul! I called Sam, and he's on his way here right now."_

_ He knew that she was lying because he spotted her cellphone out in the living room on the coffee table in front of the couch, and because he hadn't even been outside for a full minute for her to have a conversation and then run in here, but he nodded his head, "Okay," remaining at her door, not making any movements to enter the bedroom he said, "I just wanted to explain myself, Uley. I didn't know about the dare," her eyes told him that she didn't believe him, so he shook his head, "Seriously, I didn't know about it. Look, I'm best friends with Jared, and he actually really likes you. He's always defending you, and sticking up for you, and he's even always hitting me for being an ass to you – do you think that anyone in school would have allowed rumors about the dare to reach him? I promise you that none of us knew about it, 'cause the other kids know that if one of us found out we'd have told Jared – even me… I would have told him too, 'cause that's fucked up. It's one thing to pick on you, but to actually make dares and bets to see who can get you on a date or something else is just fucked up. I just want you to know that, okay – I didn't kiss you 'cause I was dared to."_

_ He instantly regretted adding in the last part of his admission. Her eyes were slowly beginning to believe him once he mentioned how everybody in school would make sure that none of Jared's friends found out about the dare, but he saw the way her knees went slack and how her head tilted to the side at the end of his speech. "Then why did you kiss me?" he wished she didn't ask._

_ He shook his head, not entirely sure of why he kissed her either. "I wanted to," he ended up shrugging._

_ She stared at him for a few seconds, and he could see the way her long lashes brushed against her thin pale brows as she blinked slowly. "Okay…"_

_ "Okay?" he questioned, frowning, "Just okay?"_

_ Shrugging her own shoulders this time, she turned a little red, "What else am I supposed to say, Paul? I'm sorry that I accused you of getting in on the dare around school, but it's not as if you've ever made it seem like you wanted to kiss me in the past," gesturing at his fist she added, "Or that you cared about me getting picked on. You're usually the one at the front of the line to pick on me; you've always been."_

_ "Right…" rubbing at the back of his head now, he noticed that she relaxed her legs completely so that she was now sitting cross legged on her bed. He'd seen her looking so comfortable hundreds of times at Jared's house, but never before were they alone. They've never been alone ever before this moment, and it made him uncomfortable suddenly._

_ She bit her bottom lip for a moment, and looked a bit hesitant but when Paul turned to leave Cassie called out his name. Turning back to look at her he saw how red her face was – he always told her she looked like a tomato when red, and now he still thought the same thing. Only, he was suddenly in the mood for a BLT. "T-Thanks."_

_ It was in the way that she blushed while thanking him that told Paul she wasn't thanking him for defending her or bringing her books over anymore. "For what?" he asked._

_ Still biting her lip, and now releasing her hair from its bun only to play nervously with her loose strands, she finally said, "Everyone says I'm ugly. No boy on the rez ever wants to kiss me unless they're dared too… but I've always walked away from them."_

_ "You're not ugly!" inwardly groaning once the words left his mouth, Paul saw the way her brows rose high up into her hairline. Wondering if his face was red as hers, he shifted uncomfortably where he was standing, and then he shook his head, "I mean…" he trailed off though, unable to think of an insult in that very moment._

_ Giggling, and then flying her hands to her mouth once the sound left her, Cassie looked as embarrassed as Paul felt. They continued to stare at each other, both red faced and wishing they were anywhere else in that very moment, but then Cassie pulled her hands away from her mouth and looked up at him shyly. "I – I liked it."_

_ This time Paul was the stunned one, "Really?" when she shyly nodded her head, he felt himself slowly beginning to smirk._

_ This time it was different. Cassie had been expecting it now, and as he sat across from her on her bed, she leaned forward to meet him. Her eyes were closed, and Paul felt his chest twitch at the idea of having a girl close her eyes just to kiss him. He'd kissed a few girls before today, but their eyes had always been open. And they were a lot more experienced than Cassie was. It was wet and sloppy, and he could actually feel the way she was trying to overthink the kiss to keep from ruining it. She was nervous that he wouldn't like it, and Paul didn't know what to think about that – how was he supposed to feel about Cassie Uley trying to make her second kiss perfect for him?_

_ Slowly bringing one hand up to cup her cheek, Paul was resting on his knees on the bed while Cassie still sat with her legs crossed in front of her; she was leaning forward though so her ass sort of hovered in the air. Her hands remained at the side of her body, unsure of what to do with them but as she began to relax into the kiss her hands began to move slowly. She allowed Paul to dominate the kiss, trusting him to guide her on what to do, and gradually her hands moved to his chest to keep herself steadied._

_ Unable to bite back his groan when he could feel the heat of her tiny palms pressed against his chest through the thin fabric of his plain white tee, Paul felt her pull away from him with a nervous look. "I-Is this okay?" she asked, quickly beginning to pull her hands away in fear that she pissed him off._

_ Reaching out to take her hands in his, Paul returned them to his chest and gave her a smirking smile, "Yeah, it's cool – you can just keep them right there."_

_ Giggling, she nodded her head, "Okay."_

_ The third time they kissed it was Cassie who brought her lips crashing to his. He introduced her to something new, and she liked it. Paul's tongue was in her mouth once more, but once he felt her begin to prod around curiously, he allowed their tongues to travel back into his mouth. It was like she entered new territory, which she did, and absentmindedly she pulled herself up a little more as their kiss grew harder as she familiarized herself with his mouth. It was obvious she was still new to kissing, but Paul was just a fifteen-year-old boy and it was still enough to have him excited._

_ Testing their limits, he pushed her back onto her pillows so that he was lying above her. So far it didn't seem like she noticed, so he moved his hand from her cheek to her waist. She tensed beneath him this time, but she continued to attack his mouth with new vigor. With her hands still on his chest, and one hand on her waist with his other hand holding him to keep him from crushing her, Paul and Cassie laid in her bed making out._

_ It was funny if they both paused long enough to think about it._

_ Gradually they both pulled away for air, and Cassie's chest was heaving to the point that every time it pressed against Paul's chest, he could feel the softness of her breasts. Growing bolder, and thinking back to the porno that he and Jared found while visiting one of Jared's older cousins, Paul bravely lowered his mouth from Cassie's mouth to her throat. She gasped in shock, but didn't try to stop him. So, he pushed his luck again and began to lightly suck on a sensitive spot that had her squirming beneath him. He didn't know how he found it on his first try, but it was enough to finally make her speak._

_ "Paul, what are you doing?" her breath was heavy._

_ "I – I don't know," he admitted. Pulling his mouth away, Paul stared down at her. Her rainy eyes were now a dark blue color of the ocean, and there were no more traces that she'd once been crying. "Do you want me to stop?"_

_ She bit her lip, and Paul glanced down at the innocent gesture. Suddenly it didn't seem so innocent anymore as he took in the slight swelling of her freshly kissed lips. "N-No…"_

_ Grinning because he'd just been given permission to continue sucking on her neck, Paul noticed that she released a yelp when he attempted to nibble on it. Within seconds a small bruise appeared, and he quickly pulled away once it dawned on him what he just did. "Fuck!" seeing the confusion in her face, he sheepishly admitted, "You kind of have a hickey now."_

_ "Great…" she snorted, rolling her eyes. Moving her hands away from his chest, she felt around her throat to see if she could feel it. When her fingers lightly brushed over the spot she sighed heavily as her body twitched in slight pain. "It feels more like a bruise than anything."_

_ "Sorry. Does it hurt?" he'd seen some of the older kids on the rez walking around proudly with hickeys on their necks like it was some sort of prize, but he'd never really thought much about it. He knew enough to know that the adults and elders frowned upon them, but as he stared down at the small little quarter sized mark left by his mouth on her throat, he felt himself inwardly smirking smugly – he did that!_

_ "Not really," she shook her head, "Sort of when I touch it, but not when you did it. I – I kind of liked it when you were doing it?"_

_ His eyes widened. He hadn't expected to hear that she liked it, and by the way her face fell she hadn't expected to admit it to him, "Really?" _

_ She nodded in response and Paul brought his lips down to hers once more. He knew that this was foolish. He didn't even like her really. He just felt sorry for her. He only came here to bring her her stupid school books and to see if she was okay because he saw her crying. He didn't come here to lay with her in her bed and make out with her repeatedly and then give her a hickey. Although… the more they kissed the better she got at it. This was just her fourth kiss, and she was already picking up on everything he was doing with his tongue. She was beginning to mirror his tongue movements, and he sort of liked it._

_ His hands grew bolder, and this time the hand on Cassie's waist skimmed around a bit until it was touching flesh. He glanced down from the kiss and noticed that he somehow lifted her shirt up a bit and his dark russet skin was pressed against her pale skin; and together the touch felt heated. It was an almost innocent touch, just on her lower stomach, but it was enough of a touch to make her moan into his mouth… and that moan was enough to make his hips twitch. It reminded him of the girl in the porno._

_ He was only fifteen-years-old, and like all other fifteen-year-old boys he had often thought about seeing a girl naked and touching her, but he didn't ever think about Cassie Uley. But hearing her moan into his mouth once his hand touched her bare stomach, Paul wondered why he never thought about her before? He was fifteen – he didn't have to like somebody to picture them naked._

_ But as he grew bolder, so did she._

_ Cassie's hands found their way to the hem of his shirt, and slowly they crept inside. Smirking against her lips when he could feel her gasp once her small fingers collided with a hardened stomach, Paul's stomach fluttered when her fingers began to feel around wonderingly; trying to get to know his stomach on a personal level. Feeling the way her fingers roamed, he allowed his own fingers to dance against her lower stomach as well and she flinched at the touch. Their kiss grew deepened, although Paul didn't know who deepened it, as their fingers began to wander._

_ Cassie's fingers stopped moving once Paul reached her bra. He froze too, not meaning to roam so high. She was shorter than him, and a girl's body was different from a male's, so obviously he'd reach her chest after a few inches, but he didn't expect to actually have his fingers touching the lacy fabric of a bra… a bra that still had actual breasts in them. And at fifteen-years-old touching a bra with breasts still in them had Paul hardening in his jeans._

_ He prayed that she couldn't feel it. _

_ Embarrassed at having a boner while still lying over Cassie, Paul couldn't move. He wanted to pull his hand out of her shirt at once, and he wanted to run out of her house and threaten her to never tell anybody about this, but he was stuck. He was too embarrassed to move away and fix this. Cassie's eyes were open now, and she gauged his face carefully. Paul expected for her to shove him off of her and run out of the house screaming for her cousin, and he didn't blame her, but instead she only remained there with her hands still in his shirt._

_ After what seemed like a lifetime to Paul, Cassie made the first move. She brought her lips back to his in another kiss, and her fingers began to move along his chest once more as well. He was confused, and the thought frightened him into thinking this could be a trap, but teenaged hormones took over logic and when she didn't try to stop him, Paul allowed his hand to very carefully move upward until he was cupping her breast completely._

_ He cheered inwardly, and a part of him couldn't wait to brag to all his friends that he touched his first booby!_

_ It was an indescribable feeling, and it was small enough to allow his entire hand to cup it, but big enough to sort of spill out through his fingers. It was still in the bra, but he could feel Cassie's nipple hardening through the lace of her bra and when he bravely brought two fingers down to pinch the nipple she arched into his touch and released a long moan into his mouth._

_ It moved quickly from there, and although Paul knew they should stop he knew that neither of them knew how to stop it._

_ Soon they were both completely shirtless – both naked chested for the other to see and to touch. Cassie seemed impressed with Paul's chest, although she saw it all the time because he liked to walk around the rez shirtless, but he supposed it was because now she was actually touching it instead of just seeing it. He doubted she was as impressed as he was though. Not only did he touch his first booby in a bra, he also took off his first bra, touched his first bare booby, and when she nodded her head at him he even tasted his first booby – he had tasted the promise land!_

_ But then it grew more intense._

_ She moaned and writhed in such intense pleasure when he touched her breasts, and suckled on her nipples, that Paul began to wonder just how far she would allow this to go. He was willing to stop once she wanted to, but this was better than sneaking around to watch porn and he really hoped that it didn't come to an end anytime soon._

_ She tensed beneath him once his fingers grazed the top of her jeans, but after a few seconds Cassie brought her fingers to his jeans as well. Hoping that her actions meant what he thought it did, Paul pulled away from her breasts, "Are you sure?"_

_ "No," but she nodded her head and kept her hands there anyway. He stared into her eyes for a few seconds, and his breathing was heavy, and he could hear her breathing raggedly at this point. "I – I've never done this before," her voice was a whisper._

_ Biting back the obvious retort that he already knew she hadn't done this if she admitted to him earlier that she hadn't even been kissed before, Paul softly said, "Me neither."_

_ "Are – are you going to run bragging to all of your friends?" she asked him hesitantly. Paul could see the fear in her eyes. She was already marked for being white, but she didn't want to be marked as a whore either._

_ It was almost enough to make him stop. He didn't even like her – they shouldn't have been doing this. They were only fifteen-years-old, and this was reality; not a porno… "No," he shook his head, still trying to convince himself to just stand up and pretend none of this happened. Of course he would run back to them, even Jared – he touched, sucked, and nibbled on his first pair of boobies; he was going to scream it from the mountains! "I wouldn't do that."_

_ "Do you really want to do this?" she asked him worriedly. "Or do you just feel sorry for me?"_

_ Of course he just felt sorry for her, but how many chances was he going to get to have this happen before he left high school? He was just fifteen-years-old, still just a sophomore; he wasn't going to pass this moment up. "I'm a fifteen-year-old boy," he ended up chuckling, still staring down at her. She was beginning to bite her lip again, and he was still hard in his jeans, "I really want this," when she didn't look convinced, he said, "What about you?"_

_ Releasing a breathy laugh, she tugged on his jeans and said, "Girls think about this just as much as boys do, Paul."_

_ "Really?"_

_ "Yeah. Just – just be gentle…"_

_ Bringing his lips to hers once more, Paul adjusted himself so that he was kneeling over her now. He knew that she could feel his boner through his jeans this time, but now he didn't worry about it freaking her out – she wanted this to happen just as much as he did. He could see it in her eyes that she knew what he knew though; this was a mistake never meant to happen. He hated her, despised her… any moment he could stop kissing her of his own free will. He just had to figure out how to first._

_ "Wait – wait!"_

_ Pulling his hands away from her jeans just as he unbuttoned and unzipped it, Paul sat up straight. He'd jerked off a few times before, discovering the arts of masturbation when he was still just fourteen. And now he'd always have this memory instead of returning to the hidden stash of magazines beneath his mattress. If she was going to kick him out, he'd run all the way home without pausing so he could lock himself up in his room._

_ "Do you have a – err…"_

_ Staring at her blankly because now was not the time for fucking riddles, Paul didn't realize what she meant until she was blinking at him and then gesturing down at where he was sitting on her. "Oh…" jumping off of her in a heartbeat, he started to run out of the room. Thank god for fucking awkward classes like health. They learned about sex and protection two weeks before, and he still had the free condoms that were passed out in his backpack. Running back into the room like madman with only one thing in mind, Paul saw Cassie propping herself up on her elbows. Her breasts were flashing him, her pale skin was flushed with the heat of what they've been doing so far, and her hair looked disheveled for some reason – he emptied his bag out onto the floor of her room and then picked a condom up off of the floor. It was green._

_ Giggling at how frantic Paul looked while jumping back onto her bed, Cassie watched him as he kneeled right in front of her. "Do you know how to use it?"_

_ Despite how desperate he was at this point for her to still allow this to happen, Paul rolled his eyes at her. Giving her one of his classic snorting looks that usually came attached with an insult meant for her, he said, "I'm not an idiot, Uley."_

_ Her breath hitched, but this time it wasn't because of her excitement. It was because of the look he gave her, and because despite the situation he still refused to call her by her name. "I was just making sure, Paul!" she bit out harshly. "I wasn't there in school the day they taught about this, so I wasn't sure if they taught you what to do or not. Leah sort of taught me one day at home, so I was willing to help!"_

_ His face faltered at her words when he realized she was only offering to help him put it on instead of testing his knowledge. She was only being kind to him, and he was an asshole. Like always. But then he ended up wrinkling his nose in disgust – why the hell would her cousin's ex teach her about condoms? He doubted that Leah taught Cassie this stuff when she was still with Sam because of how young she was at the time._

_ "Just hurry up and get it over with!"_

_ She still wanted to do this? Giving her a curious look, Paul could hear the annoyance in her voice and he told himself that this was the perfect time to get up and leave – now was the moment to shake himself out of this weirdness that seemed to be taking place. "Umm…"_

_ "Oh god," rolling her eyes, Cassie sat up and then gave him a questioning look, "Do you still want to do this, Paul?" he nodded his head, so she frowned, "Then why are you all frozen now?"_

_ "I…" he couldn't believe this was actually about to happen, "It's you…"_

_ "Oh…"_

_ On the surface Paul just looked red and flustered, but on the inside he was definitely beating himself up. He already had a broken nose and swollen eye at this point in his mind. Once the words left his mouth, Cassie's entire face fell and she turned even redder. But this time he knew it wasn't from their activities. Instantly bringing one hand up to her breasts, hiding it from his view, Cassie lowered her face to look anywhere but at him. She was half naked, and she admitted to wanting to go all the way with the guy who hated her openly, and now she was embarrassed._

_ Trying to look around the bed for her shirt, Cassie felt Paul's hands on her and she refused to look up at him, "I didn't mean it like that," she still refused to look up at him, so Paul moved one hand to her chin to force her face to turn towards him, "I just meant that I can't believe this is actually happening… with you."_

_ "That doesn't make me feel any better…" she muttered._

_ Understanding what she meant, Paul ended up sighing heavily, "I want this, Uley," she flinched at the name again. He meant to call her Cassie, but it just didn't come out like he planned it to. "We – we aren't exactly friends."_

_ "Right," she nodded her head, "You don't like me."_

_ He noticed that she didn't mention it was a two-way street where they both didn't like each other, but then he noticed something else – in all their years of knowing each other from when they were in diapers he was the only one to admit not liking her. She not once made it known that she hated him. "Sorry," he said, finally releasing her. Looking for his own shirt he found it on the floor next to the bed, and he brought her shirt up with it. Seeing the way she only stared at it in his hands, afraid to remove her arms from protecting a nakedness he would never be able to forget, Paul said, "I'm sorry."_

_ "It's not my fault I'm white," she said softly, looking away from him once more. "I didn't ask to be adopted by Quileute Tribe members and then brought to live on the rez. But I grew up here just like the rest of you. I grew up as a Uley, and I've been to all of the bonfires, and I've listened to all of the legends, and my dad's on the council. I grew up in jeans and tank-tops, and I've played in the mud, and I played hide-n-seek and tag in the forest just like the rest of you – I am from La Push, and I grew up on the rez, and it's not my fault that I'm white!"_

_ In that moment Paul realized that he didn't care if she was white, or if they went all the way anymore. She was Cassie Uley, and she was that annoying girl that his best friend constantly brought around them. She was that little girl that helped Jared fix up his dirt bike one day when it broke down but he was too busy to fix it himself, she was the girl that he grew up seeing wearing her cousin's jacket when it got cold around the bonfire while the elders spoke about the legends of the tribe, and she was the same girl that had his blood boiling when he saw her crying after school. They weren't friends, but she was Casper – the little girl that he nicknamed when they were five because she was different from him._

_ It happened._

_ He kissed her slowly this time, and with a passion that he didn't know he had in him. Their tongues danced more than they intertwined, and this time he could taste lemonade in her mouth. All the other times they kissed and made out he couldn't taste anything, but now he could taste lemonade. It made him thirsty. She was hesitant at first, and her eyes were open, but when she saw him drop the condom and forget about it she moved her body so that she was sitting in his lap. Her hands ran through his short messy hair, and pale caressed dark as their bare chests connected together._

_ This time the kiss lasted until they were both panting into each other's mouths. They both ran out of air, but neither one wanted to pull away this time to admit it. The kiss was slow as they both gasped for air to breathe, but they both refused to pull away completely. Cassie was the one that leaned against him to stretch her arm out for the condom, and she was the one that snaked that same condom holding hand out to grab his non-bruised and scraped up hand to pass it to him._

_ "We don't have to," he panted, finally being the one to break the kiss to speak. The condom was in his hand, but he no longer felt the same strong urge that he felt earlier. He still wanted to, and he'd be an idiot to pass this up, but he no longer needed it._

_ "I know," she smiled against his face, pressing her forehead against his and staring down into his eyes._

_ Girls confused him, and Cassie especially confused him, but he took that as a sign that she knew they didn't have to but that she still wanted to. Maybe it was because he kissed her after hurting her feelings, or maybe it was because of the passion behind the kiss, but she let him know that she still wanted to by grinding her lap against his; drawing gasps from them both._

_ He laid her down again, this time making sure that she was comfortable, and with one more assurance from her Paul shyly shrugged out of his jeans until he was completely naked and kneeling in front of her. Feeling smug when Cassie's eyes widened and her mouth fell open a little, Paul knew what it must look like to a blushing virgin – a naked, and nearly sculpted, handsome guy in front of her with his throbbing cock pointing directly at you. She'd never seen one before, from what he assumed by her reaction, and her chest began to heave erratically as she tried to control her breathing. He was thick, and he was a little long, and he knew how intimidating he must have looked to a virgin._

_ "Whoa…"_

_ Not responding to her sentiment, because he didn't know how to, Paul licked his lips and then situated himself between her legs. With a shaky nod of her head, he tugged at Cassie's jeans to pull them off of her. It wasn't until she had to lift her ass a little and he had to actually tug at it that he noticed how tight they were on her. And with her jeans tossed somewhere on the floor behind him, Paul gave her an impressed look at the dark blue thong she was wearing. He never thought about Cassie and her underwear before, but if he did he never would have imagined a thong. Maybe boyshorts, but not a thong._

_ And it was his first time seeing someone in just a thong in general. Well in person at least._

_ Feeling his cock begin to actually throb in pain from how long he'd been hard without any type of release or easing, Paul nervously pulled her thong off as well, and his eyes widened. Cassie laid there with her hair sprawled out on her pillows, biting her lip so hard that he was afraid she'd pierce it with her teeth soon, and her entire pale body was flushed from her embarrassment. He wondered if any of the other girls on the rez, the darker ones, would flush as much as Cassie did. Was it just a white girl thing?_

_ And his second thought was that the porno and the magazines all lied to him – not all females shaved down there. He knew enough about puberty to know that girls grew pubic hair just as much as guys did once they reached a certain age, but from when he was fourteen he thought they all shaved it all off so that they remained perfectly hairless. Cassie didn't._

_ It wasn't as if she was completely hairy down there. Her wiry blonde pubic hair was nothing compared to the black bushy nest of curls he had right above his cock – because he liked to shave the rest of it off because he thought all guys did that – but there was still hair. He could see that she trimmed it, and she shaved around the edges to keep it from poking out whenever she went to the beach, but there was still hair._

_ Almost forgetting that the first pussy he was staring directly at belonged to an actual person, Paul curiously brought a hand up to it to feel it. His fingers connected with the slit, and the pussy was thrust up into the air as a soft, "Paul…" echoed in the room._

_ Pulling his fingers away at once, and lifting his head to find the lustful way that Cassie was staring at him; still embarrassed at how exposed she was to him right now, Paul realized that this was very much happening right now. "Are you sure?"_

_ She nodded her head, and he pulled the condom on as quickly as he could without stumbling. He would never admit how proud he was to not mess that moment up with how nervous he was. She didn't have to watch him do that, did she? Licking his lips once more, Paul scooted himself so that he was right between her legs. He knew that she was wet from when he touched her, and there was a strong scent in the air. He always heard that sex had a smell, but he never believed it until just now._

_ "Just go slow."_

_ "Just tell me if you want me to stop."_

_ She shut her eyes and clamped at the sheets when he slowly entered her, and when he felt her barrier, she told him to do it. He stayed still inside of her, afraid to move, for five whole minutes when she cried out in pain and clenched her teeth when he broke through her barrier. It felt like pushing a pencil through a paper, and he was glad for the reason to stay still without movements. Being inside of an actual pussy was nothing like jerking yourself with your own hand._

_ It was hot inside of her, so fucking warm and hot, and he could feel how tight she was. It was like getting your finger stuck in a Chinese trap, and he was afraid that he would cum already if he moved anytime soon. So he remained still, and by the labored way that Cassie tried to control her breathing to forget about whatever pain he must have just put her through, Paul could tell that she was grateful for his ability to refrain from pushing in any deeper right now. She was throbbing around his cock, and it was just so fucking hot and tight right now. It almost hurt._

_ "O-Okay…" she said finally, opening her eyes. The corners of her eyes were still wet from her tears, but they were quick tears brought forth by the sudden intrusion inside of her, and Paul studied her face closely to see if she was actually ready to continue or just because she felt guilty for making him wait for so long while she tried to get used to the pain. "I-I'm ready," she nodded her head, seeing his hesitation._

_ "Are you sure?"_

_ "Just go slowly at first," she nodded._

_ He went at a snail pace, biting back his own frustrations to just force himself deeper into her until she eventually got used to the pain. He entered her fully at a snail pace until they were both gasping at the sensation of his balls pressed against her ass. She gasped at how full she felt, and he gasped because it was hot and tight everywhere on his cock – her inner walls throbbed around him everywhere, and everything felt an amazing pressure._

_ There was no turning back at this point – Paul Lahote and Cassie Uley were no longer virgins._

_ She moaned and she mewled, and she even whimpered. He grunted, he groaned, and he even hissed. After a full minute of going at a snail pace, Paul began to feel himself get ready to explode and Cassie no longer wanted slow – she cried for him to go faster. So he did. Clenching his teeth tightly, and holding himself up with one hand while his other hand held onto her thigh for support, Paul released loud groaning sounds while thrusting into her quickly. Cassie continued to tug at the sheets, and there were mixed sounds of pleasure and pain emerging from her mouth, but finally Paul's name fell from her raw throat as her body arched and lifted off the bed with a wailing sound._

_ Paul cried her name out in the same moment, not even realizing that he called her Cassie for the first time in fifteen years, and as her pussy gripped him even tighter with her own first orgasm, Paul came as well. Luckily, he was wearing a condom or else she'd definitely have gotten pregnant in that very moment._

_ The next morning at school, Paul was sitting on a table with his best friends surrounding him. He kept waiting for the perfect moment to interrupt Jacob's conversation about his sisters to tell them all that he'd moved up from jerking off and pornos and magazines, and he wanted to see how Jared's face fell when he realized that he lost his virginity to Cassie – the girl that he was pretty sure his best friend had a crush on. It was a dick move, and it was fucked up of him to feel pleasure in getting to her before Jared did, but he'd always been asshole._

_ He was still waiting for the perfect moment to announce the conquest to his group of friends when Cassie approached them. With her hair flowing down just past her shoulders, and hiding the hickey he gave her on her throat, Cassie was wearing an ordinary plain t-shirt tucked into a pair of tiny blue jeans. They looked almost similar to the same jeans he tugged off of her the day before, and Paul wondered if she was wearing a thong beneath that too. With her backpack hanging on one shoulder, and her books in her arms, she stood in front of them all with a worried expression on her face._

_ Paul noticed the look that she gave him, and he rolled his eyes when he realized she was afraid that he broke his promise to her and told his friends about what they did. If she waited another minute to approach them she'd have arrived in the middle of his tale. "Hey Cass," Jared grinned as brightly as he always did whenever he saw her, "What's up?"_

_ "Nothing," she shook her head. Giving Paul another worried glance, and then almost sighing in relief when he shook his head at her, she ended up saying, "I just wanted to say thanks to all of you for yesterday after school. I know that Paul broke Larry's nose, 'cause he told me about it when he came over to bring my books and check on me, but Larry actually approached me when I was walking to school this morning."_

_ Paul flinched, and he saw the way that Jared's eyes narrowed, "Didn't the asshole learn his lesson yesterday?" Jared snarled._

_ Chuckling, she nodded her head, "Yeah, he actually approached me to apologize. He promised to leave me alone from now on as long as all of you stay the hell away from him. He told me that the two of you," she looked at Jared and Jacob, "Kicked his head in after Paul left, and now he's in a cast 'cause one of you stepped on the hand that knocked out my books and broke his entire arm. And then you two," she gave both Embry and Quil an amused look, "Got caught trying to set his truck on fire by sticking a gasoline soaked shirt into his gas tank. You guys are all pretty scary, but thanks for sticking up for me. Maybe now the others will leave me alone too."_

_ "So did your parents decide to stay here on the rez after all?" Jared asked with a hopeful look on his face. Paul's face dropped when he realized that Jared knew about the possible move all this time, and he didn't say anything to him about it. Not that Jared had a reason to tell him about it – it wasn't as if he and Cassie were friends._

_ Giving Paul another glance, although this one held more confusion than worry, Cassie ended up shrugging her shoulders. "Mom asked me about it last night. She says that it's up to me."_

_ "So, you can decide if you guys stay here or move?"_

_ Jacob looked confused, "I didn't know your parents were thinking of moving?"_

_ "Her mom's got a job offer somewhere in Wyoming," Paul ended up snorting, jumping off the table and flexing his muscles as he did so. "You should tell her to take it, Casper," he didn't know why he called her that again. He saw the way her face paled at once, resembling the same shade as the reason behind her nickname, and despite his own confusion Paul heard himself loudly saying, "It's not as if you've got any friends here other than Jared. The others only put up with you 'cause of him, and even then he only feels sorry for you."_

_ Jared's nostril flared up and he pushed Paul when he saw the crestfallen expression on the heartbroken girl, "What the fuck is your problem, man?!"_

_ "My job's done," Paul shrugged, still not understanding why he was being such an asshole to her right now. They had a moment the day before, and he laid with her in her bed for half an hour talking about what they'd done and how things would be different between them now, but it was as if none of it ever happened. "I repaid her for defending me against her cousin three years ago, and now I can go back to being an asshole without any guilt," but there was guilt – the guilt was pressing heavily on his chest right now._

_ "You're such a fucking asshole, Paul Lahote!" she shouted at him loudly, drawing a few eyes their way. "God, I hate you so fucking much!"_

_ Punching Paul for being a dick, Jared ran after Cassie to comfort her. The others all shook their heads at Paul too, looking at him in disgust before leaving him standing there with his flexing muscles all by himself. If there was a mirror anywhere nearby, he'd look at himself in disgust too, but right now all he could do was stand there in shock of the words that came out of his own mouth._

_ They didn't understand – he and Cassie had a new relationship now. He was her first kiss, he sucked on her breasts, they lost their virginity to each other…_

_ But he had nobody to tell his secret to._

_ Two weeks later: two weeks after having to put up with the weird way that Cassie avoided his eyes completely in school, the way that she ignored him when he tried to talk her, the way that she even took to avoiding Jared and the others, and the way that she seemed to fall into a deeper shell than she did before he went over to her house, Paul was hanging out with Jacob and Jared at Jared's house. They were playing video games, and making plans to go down to the beach later that day. Jared wanted to invite Cassie like they usually did, but Paul felt awkward now. How could he face her after being an asshole to her just the day after promising that things were going to change after losing their virginity to each other?_

_ He tried to be nice to her in school after being such a dick by telling her Jared was her only friend, and that he only felt sorry for her, but every time she'd give him a chance to talk that first day he found himself only spewing out hateful things because other people were nearby. It seemed like he could only be nice to her when they were alone, and she didn't seem to like that too much because by lunch that day she avoided him like the plague. He tried to corner her in their only shared class, but after the third day of avoiding him by sticking in her earplugs and sticking herself between other people who hated her, Cassie just began to ditch that class altogether._

_ He hurt her, and he knew it._

_ Hearing somebody knocking on the front door, Jared jumped off the couch and walked over to see who it was. "Cassie!" he cried out excitedly, pulling her into a deep hug._

_ Paul paused the game at once, earning a shout of protest from Jacob, and he looked over at the door. Wearing her usual jean shorts and a tank-top, Cassie had her hair rolled up. The hickey was long gone now, "Hey, Jared."_

_ "You wanna play video games with us?" he asked, moving to the side for her to just enter the house like she usually did._

_ Shaking her head, she looked a bit hesitant. Not even bothering to look into the house, Cassie reached into the front pocket of her shorts and pulled out a necklace. It was a shark's tooth hanging on a black rope. "I just wanted to drop this off."_

_ Accepting the necklace, Jared looked confused, "This is your favorite necklace, Cass. It was the only thing that your birth parents left with you when they gave you up for adoption," Paul and Jacob both stared at the necklace in wonder now. They'd never seen her wear it before, but it seemed like Jared saw it all the time. "Why are you giving it to me?"_

_ "I'm leaving," she sighed, scratching at her stomach. There was hesitation in her voice, and Paul's breath hitched when her eyes shifted in his direction before quickly looking back at the only best friend she ever had in this place. "I told my mom to take the offer 'cause you're the only good thing 'bout this place. You, Jacob, Embry, Quil, Seth, Leah, Sam, and Emily – you're the only ones that I'd stay here for," Paul would never admit how much it hurt that she didn't say his name, "But the job's a good opportunity. Mom will make more money there than at the clinic, and Dad managed to get a good job working up in the Teton Mountains already."_

_ Jared looked heartbroken, and Jacob jumped up now. Paul wanted to get up and walk to the door too, but he was afraid to get up because he was afraid of being mean to her again. It seemed like he didn't know how to be nice to her unless she was crying… or naked. "I don't want you to leave," Jared said in a broken voice. "Can't you stay with Sam and Emily?"_

_ "They said I could," she nodded. Paul noticed the way she glanced him once more before saying, "But there are things here that I'd rather forget about," it hurt – it hurt like hell to hear her harsh words. Looking back at Jared, she gave him an apologetic expression, "I didn't know how to tell you all this time, but we're leaving today," glancing over her shoulder to show her parents sitting in their car and waiting patiently for her, she looked back at him, "I made Dad stop here so I could say goodbye first. I couldn't leave here without seeing you, Jared."_

_ "You – you mean you're leaving right now?" when Cassie nodded her head, Paul noticed she was crying. But this time these tears were meant to be seen – she really was going to miss Jared after all. Sniffing back his own tears, Jared clamped his hand around the necklace and then nodded his head and pulled her into his arms for a tight embrace. "I wish you told me, Cass. I'd have thrown you a barbeque."_

_ "I didn't want to make a big deal out of it," she chuckled, resting her head on his shoulder. "I didn't want to have to deal with the rez throwing a big party. Casper's gone now so they all have a reason to celebrate, and knowing Lahote he'd have been the one throwing it."_

_ Lahote – with fifteen years of teasing she always called him Paul. And in one day he managed to become Lahote to her. It was the first time Cassie ever called him by his last name, and both Jared and Jacob tensed when they heard it. But Paul didn't even flinch. He only stared up at her from his position on the couch._

_ "We'd have stopped him," Jacob said, pulling Cassie away from Jared so that he could hug her. "You're a cool person to hang out with, Cass," hugging her tightly, and feeling her chuckle against him, he sighed as he released her, "I'm gonna miss you. And I know the others will be bummed that you left without saying goodbye to them too."_

_ "I was hoping that you'd all be here," she ended up admitting sheepishly. "I'd ask if we could stop by to tell them bye too, but our flight leaves in four hours. Tell them bye for me?"_

_ Jacob nodded his head, "Of course."_

_ "Call me when you get there," Jared ended up telling her, pulling her back in for another hug. This time Paul scowled at them both when Cassie giggled in his arms. "Call me once your plane lands. Actually, call me once you get to the airport down here, and then call me again when your plane lands in Jackson Hole."_

_ "I will," she promised. And Paul knew that she would too._

_ "Is there nothing that we can do to make you stay here?"_

_ This time Jacob noticed the way that Cassie's eyes shifted in Paul's direction. Paul stared back at her, not opening his mouth or making any movements, and when Cassie sighed then looked back at Jared, Jacob's eyes widened in shock. Cassie didn't notice it, but Paul did, and he gave Jacob a threatening glare, "No," she shook her head, "I'm leaving."_

_ "I'm going to miss you a lot."_

_ "I'm going to miss you too," she sighed, shutting her eyes and squeezing Jared tightly. Her dad honked the horn from their car to let her know it was time to leave already, and her grip around Jared tightened, "Stay good, Jared. Stay good, and stay you."_

_ Chuckling, he nodded his head. When she reluctantly pulled away from him, Jacob had to place a comforting hand on his shoulder to keep him from pulling her back against him. "Promise me you'll call?"_

_ "I promise," she smiled, wiping at her tears. Pressing a kiss to Jacob's cheek, and telling him goodbye, she did the same to Jared. Paul expected her to just walk away and leave right then, but instead she looked at him directly this time; no shiftiness about it. "Are you at least going to say goodbye to me?"_

_ Jared and Jacob both looked at him, and Paul felt pressured. He didn't want to say goodbye. He wanted to apologize for being an asshole, again, and he wanted to tell her to just stay here because she was right when she told him that this was her home too, but instead he only lifted an arm and waved at her, "Bye."_

_ Glaring darkly at him, Cassie bitterly said, "Thank god I won't have to see you anymore."_

_ With another hug and kiss on the cheek for Jared, Cassie didn't look back this time. It wasn't until he heard the car pull away that Paul found the courage to ask her to stay. But by the time he ran to the door the car was driving off, and Cassie didn't turn around to wave goodbye one last time._

_ Kicking at the ground in annoyance Paul was pissed that he gave up his only opportunity to admit that he didn't hate Cassie anymore._

_ In fact, he didn't think he ever really did._

**"Sam is going to kill you when he finds out that you had sex with his baby cousin."**

** Glaring hotly at the gray colored wolf standing next to him, Paul growled at him, "For five fucking years I was able to hide this memory from him – from all of you!"**

** If wolves could laugh, Paul knew that that would be what Embry was doing right now. But instead his body just shook and his lips curled upward in a literal wolfish grin, "And imagine what Jared's going to do to you when he finds out! You knew that he liked her back then, and not only did you take her virginity and then act like a total asshole to her the next morning but you're also the reason she moved away. Jared had her convinced to tell her parents to just stay here on the rez, but once you sunk into her you just chased her away."**

** "You could feel my fucking emotions in the memory, Embry – you know how bad I felt!"**

** Embry only shook his head, "I'm so glad I'm not you right now! Jared's supposed to come out with us for a run tonight so if I were you, I'd phase back before he phases and sees your memory."**

** "He'll see it through you either way."**

** Embry stared at him hard for a minute straight, and then he nudged the giant silver wolf with his muzzle, "Why think about it after five years of managing to keep this memory hidden from all of us when we're phased?"**

Running towards them with clear excitement on his face, and still in his human form, twenty-one-year-old Jared came into the clearing of the forest with his cut-off jeans still on. "Did you guys hear?" he asked excitedly, looking like a child that just found out Santa Clause was indeed very real. When Embry's wolf shook his head, and Paul's wolf only looked moody, he practically shouted, "Cassie's moving back! I just hung up with her, and she's coming down for the wedding but she's also moving here to teach a kindergarten class over in Forks – she's finally coming back home!

**"Oh," Embry said in a voice that clearly meant he was trying not to laugh at Paul's dilemma, "I take it you heard the news then?"**

** "I was at Sam's when she called," he snorted. "I heard her through the phone."**

Growing tired of watching as his two pack brothers clearly had a conversation that he couldn't hear while still a human, Jared stripped out of his cut-offs and then phased.** He stood silent for a minute and then a loud anguished howl was heard throughout all of La Push, "PAUL, I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!"**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I just want to say thank you for the reviews, likes, and follows so far! And to also promise all of you that I will update a chapter once a week. I'm not entirely sure on what day of the week it will be (probably the weekend, but I'm only posting it this late at night because I have strep throat, and am home from work 'til Monday)**

**Also, this chapter is rated M/X again…**

Chapter Two

By the time Cassie Uley was meant to arrive back on the rez to help prepare for Sam's and Emily's wedding, the entire pack knew about what happened between her and Paul. He managed to keep it a secret from his own best friends, keeping his promise to her that day, for six years, and for five years he managed to keep that particular memory locked away and hidden from being found while his mind was open to the others because of their pack link.

He became well known amongst all the females on the rez close to his age when he was just sixteen-years-old, turning to sex as a way to help keep his anger in check after the fever kicked in, and he allowed everyone in the pack to see those thoughts and memories with no problem – but not Cassie. No matter how many times Jared thought about her, or told all of them about how she was doing after a long phone conversation with her, Paul always managed to keep the truth about them from being found out.

Until he found out she was moving back onto the rez just six years after leaving it because everybody picked on her for being white.

He heard her tell Sam on the phone that she was staying after the wedding because she got a teaching job over in Forks, and then she refused his offer to move in with him and Emily because she wouldn't move back onto the rez. Sam thought that it was because she was afraid of being mocked again for being white, and she let him think that, but Paul knew better – even at twenty-one she didn't want to see him again; just as much as he wasn't looking forward to seeing her.

They parted on bitter terms, because of him, and he wasn't ready to face her yet.

Things only got worse when Sam found him lying on the forest floor with a broken leg, a broken arm, a broken nose, and a black eye with a cut lip. Jared was long gone by then, dragged away by Embry who finally took pity on Paul after he refused to fight back when Jared attacked him. The fight started out in wolf form, but then they slowly phased back into humans, and when Sam found him he was naked and unmoving. He tried to tell Sam to just leave him there, but he couldn't even speak – he was beaten so bad.

Emily was in the middle of helping to heal his wounds as best she could when Sam came running into the living room with murder in his eyes. When he confronted Jared to find out why the hell he attacked Paul like he did, Jared had no problem relaying everything he saw in Paul's mind.

Except for the parts where Paul felt guilty, and hated himself for weeks after Cassie left. Jared didn't bother to explain the parts where Paul doubted himself, questioned himself, and even tried to apologize.

Two weeks passed since then, and Cassie should have arrived at Sam's and Emily's an hour before, but Paul hadn't seen any of his pack members since that day. Sam was too pissed to beat him, too afraid that he'd actually kill him, and Emily kept Sam busy long enough for Paul to limp his way home without being caught. Quil, Embry, Seth, Collin, Brady – none of them pitied him. And he didn't blame them. He didn't fight back because he knew that he deserved it.

He kept waiting for the moment when Sam would kill him finally, and when that moment came he'd welcome it.

He hated those guys back in school for making dares about Cassie, but what he did was much much worse. He didn't get money out of it, or even a laugh, and he didn't run bragging to his best friends like he planned to at first, but an innocent girl did get hurt. He took something from her that day that she can never get back, and he hated himself every day for it.

Nobody knew it, until that day he couldn't hold back the memory anymore, but Cassie was the reason he turned to sex to help control his anger. He grew angrier and angrier each day after she left; always blaming her for making him second guess himself. Life was easier when he hated her peacefully, but then he had to see her tears, and everything just went to shit from there. He began to see her as something humane instead of an outsider, and he began to watch how she was treated from the other kids in school and his boiling hatred began to grow inside of him. And it wasn't just her virginity that was lost that day – he lost his too. He lost his virginity to a girl he always thought he despised.

And then she just left.

She didn't give him time to explain himself without blundering it up, she wasn't patient enough with him, and she didn't even bother to walk across that living room and give him a proper hug and a kiss on the cheek.

And she didn't look back.

He would always regret that she didn't look back.

If she just looked back, she'd have known.

And with her gone the other kids forgot all about her – Casper was no longer there to be picked on to her face, and the others forgot she existed. But he couldn't – he couldn't ever forget about her. He entered their only shared class, and her desk was empty. She no longer ran up to their group to talk to Jared and the others, she no longer showed up at Jared's house to play video games or watch TV, she no longer met them at the beach with her stupid little black bikini, and when he went to her house it was empty. Her bedroom was empty, her bed was gone, and even the couch in the living room had disappeared.

She was right – nobody seemed to notice when Casper disappeared.

But he had.

And it pissed him the hell off. So, he fucked girls, and he fucked them angrily. He was no longer soft and gentle, and his kisses no longer held passion in it – he kissed with an urgency at all times. And no virgins – he didn't want to be anyone's first anymore. And when it was over, he was gone before the chick even sat up. He didn't want half hour conversations, and he didn't want empty promises, and he didn't want to look into their eyes – he just wanted to get his dick wet and then leave. And when he went through all the ones on the rez that were of legal age, and in his preferred age range, Paul moved over to Forks.

He was crueler with the natural blondes with blue eyes. He fucked those ones from the back, refusing to see their faces, and when he showed those memories to the pack he made sure to hide the reasons why – he didn't want to see Cassie anymore. But in the six years that she'd been gone he found that it was impossible. Even when fucking a dark girl from the rez he ended up thinking of her again. And whenever he fucked a chick who shaved their pussies he found himself imagining slight hair down there.

Even now – even the week before he found out she was moving back home – he still thought about her when fucking random chicks he met in bars or at a diner.

The name Casper fitted her because she fucking haunted him everywhere he went.

"She's hot now."

Lifting his head up when he heard Quil talking to him, Paul sneered at him, "What the hell are you doing in my house?"

Shrugging, Quil threw himself down onto the couch as if they haven't gone two weeks without any communication. "She asked about you," when Paul cocked a brow, he chuckled, "Yeah, Sam and Jared weren't too happy about that."

"What did she say?"

"She just asked where you were, and then when Embry said you were at home, she started to ask us how we've all been," when Paul reminded silent, Quil scratched the back of his neck. "She's really hot now; I mean seriously. Even knowing that Sam would literally castrate me, I'd hook up with her – that's how hot she is."

"She was never ugly," Paul said without thinking. He didn't even realize he said it. Quil gave him a curious look, but he just kept speaking his thoughts loudly, "I never understood why the guys all said she was. I think the other girls just called her hideous 'cause they were jealous of how pretty she was back then, but I never thought she was ugly."

Clearing his throat awkwardly, and scratching at his bare chest, Quil said, "Right… so… do you wanna go for a run?"

Snorting, Paul gave him a dark look, "So suddenly since you wanna fuck Casper too, you wanna hang with me again?"

"We stayed away all this time 'cause we couldn't believe what you did to her!" Quil cried out, his voice rising. "She was a cool chick, Paul, and despite how much of an asshole you'd always been to her she'd always been nice to you. We all saw the memory when we phased with Embry and Jared, and even Sam, and despite how much you think we should pity you 'cause you felt guilty at the end, you were still an asshole. Of course, Sam wants you dead – she's his baby cousin. And Jared was your best friend, and you knew that he had a crush on her, and you still did that… and then you kept it a secret all these years, and you pretended that she left the rez 'cause of all the other people. We could all see it in your memory that if you just apologized, she'd have stayed back with Sam and Emily, and she'd never have left. So yeah, we all stayed away 'cause we're all pissed. But you're still our brother, and I came here to let you know that the second we all arrived to see her she looked at all of our faces and then asked where you were. But if you're gonna be an asshole to me too, forget it."

She asked about him the second the others walked into the house? Sighing when Quil stood up to leave, Paul pinched the bridge of his nose, "I know I fucked up, okay. But I don't know how to make it right again."

"We're adults now, Paul. We're not in high school anymore, and although it'll take Sam and Jared a bit longer to admit it, we're all pretty sure that you and Cassie can move past what happened when we were fifteen. You're not that same idiot anymore, and she's definitely changed too."

He didn't phase anymore. He wanted to, and there were times when he could feel the wolf inside of him clawing to be released, but he couldn't do it – it was as if his body literally could not phase back into a wolf. At first he thought it was because he was afraid of what other memories would be released from the hidden box in his mind, but then he began to panic. He couldn't phase, and he didn't know why.

He waited a week until giving in and calling Sam for help. Only three weeks passed since Sam watched through a very clear and vivid memory as his baby cousin lost her virginity to him, but Paul was afraid about why he wasn't phasing. It was clear that Sam wanted to hang up the phone on him, but he was an alpha and his beta was in trouble.

Because no matter what happened, Paul would still always be the beta of the pack. And when Sam left, he would become the alpha. And when a pack member was in trouble, the alpha had to swallow his pride and help him.

"I don't want to go to your house."

Growling over the phone, Sam said, "She's out with Emily in Port Angeles, shopping for things. We have a few hours to figure out what's wrong with you."

Seeing Sam for the first time since that day was awkward, and Paul could see that Sam wasn't too thrilled to see him either. He vaguely wondered if this was anything similar to Seth having to see his sister's very vivid memories of her many times in bed with Sam. Standing behind Sam's house with him, Paul explained how he couldn't phase whenever he tried to, and then when he tried to phase right there, he heard the exasperated way that Sam sighed.

"Your human side is fighting the wolf," Sam said, and this time Paul didn't hear any malice in his voice. "When was the last time you phased?"

Avoiding Sam's eyes, Paul said, "When Jared beat the shit out of me."

There was a slight hitch in Sam's breath, "It's like when I got so afraid during my first phase that I stayed as a wolf for two weeks until I changed again one night while sleeping in the forest, and just like when I accidentally phased and then hurt Emily; I stayed as a wolf for a week until Jared found me and told me to get to the hospital because she was asking for me. Every time I was afraid my wolf took over, and I couldn't become human again until the fear disappeared."

"So instead of permanently being a wolf then, I'm permanently staying human?"

Nodding his head, Sam gave him a curious look, "Are you afraid of anything, Paul?"

He was afraid of having to face Cassie again, after six years of trying to forget about her the way the others did, but he shook his head, "Not that I know of."

"Well it could be something else. Maybe instead of fear you're feeling another type of emotion that's so strong the human side kicked in and is trying to dominate your wolf. What are you feeling right now?"

"I'm worried."

"Worried about what?" Paul remained silent, refusing to answer the question. Sam could have used his alpha status to demand that Paul answer him, but it seemed like Sam understood and didn't want to hear about it, "She's my cousin, Paul."

"I know," that was just one reason that he was worried, but not really. Sam hadn't frightened him since he was twelve-years-old, and even as an alpha wolf he still didn't frighten him.

"You're going to find an imprint one day," he ended up announcing oddly, "And once you find your imprint, you're going to forget all about Cassie and whatever happened in the past. But look at Leah – it's dangerous to be with someone, knowing that one day you'll fall in love and hurt them. I didn't know that I'd one day leave Leah because I'd become a shape-shifter and then fall in love with Emily, but at the end of the day I'm perfectly happy and content at where I'm at. But Leah is still out there bitterly mourning the fact that she lost me. She knows about the imprint, and she's seen it in my thoughts that I felt guilty and that it's not my fault, and she still refuses to come to the wedding. You guys aren't little kids anymore, and this isn't some damn game at the beach or in the forest where you guys all used to run around – this is real life, and my cousin is the only one that's going to get hurt in the end."

Paul's head tilted to the side, and he gave Sam a frightened look. He even paled a little. "I – I was just worried that she wouldn't forgive me when I apologized to her. I didn't think about trying to pick up where we sort of left off, or about imprinting. I just didn't think she'd wanna talk to me in general."

"Oh…" chuckling awkwardly, and scratching his forehead, Sam said, "Right…"

It was impossible. He knew that it was impossible. She had no reason to forgive him, and he had no right to ask her to. And despite how much she haunted his mind in the past six years, he not once imagined taking her to bed again. He thought of her while fucking other chicks, but that was only because it seemed like she was the one who got away. He was fifteen when he truly _saw_ her for the first time, but his pride got in the way when she wanted to be friends, and he ended up hurting her.

It was his guilt that made him bitter, and his bitterness turned into anger, and anger led to sex, and having sex reminded him of why he still felt guilty, and then suddenly it's her face beneath him.

Dark girls turned into Cassie because she told him that it wasn't her fault she was white, and white girls turned into Cassie because she _was_ white, and tanned girls turned into Cassie because she always burned red instead of tanning.

It was a game of ring-around-the-rosies, and every spin he did only brought her quickly into his focus until he was feeling nauseous.

But he didn't expect for anything to happen between them. He'd find the courage to apologize sometime before the wedding, and then he could finally get rid of her. Even if she didn't accept it, although he prayed she did, he'd be able to finally get some peace of mind because after six years of living with the constant guilt that he was the reason she left her home, and that she left La Push thinking the worst of him, he was finally able to apologize.

He didn't care about his pride anymore, or of how people thought about him. He was a beta to a wolf pack filled with legends, he fought in a vampire war, and he killed leeches – he didn't care if anyone in the rez hated him because he apologized to the white Uley, and he sure as fuck didn't care if they laughed at him for being her friend. If Cassie was willing to accept his apology, and even become his friend, he'd prove to her that he wished he'd made things right back then.

He knew now how fucking stupid it was to hate her back then just for being different. He realized it while watching her parents drive away from Jared's house that day, and he knew now that they could have had a better past if he chose to be liked Jared and his other best friends rather than all the fucking idiots on the rez.

And Larry – that fucker moved out to Port Angeles to live with some white bitch with a fake nose.

Paul couldn't believe he once acted just like him.

It was a month after the pack learned the truth, just two weeks after Cassie moved back home, when he stopped at Jared's house to ask him something. Jared only started talking to him again after Sam informed the others that Paul was stuck in his human shape for a while, and they all went to his house to check on him. Jared made it known that he was still pissed about the whole thing with Cassie, but that they were still brothers. And then Jared assured him that neither of them let Cassie know they knew the truth.

In a way he kept his promise, and he didn't say a word about it to any of them, and Sam was the one who ordered them to keep letting Cassie think they were oblivious to it. Paul had no doubt that if it wasn't an order, Jared would have bitched at the poor girl for being so fucking stupid.

But even with Jared talking to him again, Paul could sense his best friend's hesitation. Jared read the memory directly from his mind, and he _felt_ it from his point of view. Paul went along with it, making the first move, knowing that Jared was trying to work up the courage to ask Cassie out, and even after it happened he planned to brag to him about what happened. There were some things that no problems could squash. Paul was just an asshole, and no amount of apologizing could mend that amount of purpose-betrayal.

But Paul assured him that he wasn't planning on trying to kiss Cassie again. Especially not after what Sam said about imprinting on someone else, and then feeling the guilt. He felt the actual pain from Leah's point of view, and he also felt the guilt from Sam's point of view, and he refused to put himself or Cassie through those ranges of emotions. Jared looked a lot more relaxed after he explained that part to him, but there were still some trust issues that Paul would have to work on fixing up between the two of them.

Jacob was gone now, living in Virginia with Edward, Bella, and their little demon spawn that he imprinted on, and other than Seth, Quil, and Embry they really only had each other. Their group had always been split into three: Paul, Jared, and Jacob made up one half, while Embry, Quil, and Seth made up the other half. They always hung out together, but they still found ways to split down the middle, and with Jacob gone their particular half turned into only two.

Paul couldn't lose Jared. Not his best friend.

"Jared!" he called out, entering the house without bothering to knock at all. "Do you think that jumping off the cliffs will help with my – oh…"

"Uhh, hey man," sitting on the couch with a video game controller in his hands, Jared looked up at Paul with a nervous glance on his face. Sitting next to him was a girl, well woman really, that was obviously Cassie.

He could only see her from the side view, and she looked like she was concentrating intensely on the game they were playing so she didn't even bother to look up at him, but from what he could see Paul understood what Quil meant when he said she was hot now.

Her hair was longer than when they were fifteen, and it fell to the center of her back in waves of layers of pink, purple, and blue. And the purple hair only looked like it turned purple because of where the pink and blue connected; as if getting wet kept the colors bleeding through. And her ears – she had three piercings in her ears from what he last remembered, but from the side view of her right ear he could see that she now had several white diamonds leading from her cartridge all the way to her lobes. She was wearing a dark green tube top that stopped at her belly button, and her usual bout of tiny blue jean shorts that she took to constantly wearing when they were fifteen, and he could see that she turned into a person very fond of tattoos.

Going across her right hip was a quote that he couldn't read, despite his sensitive sight, and there seemed to be a diamond poking out of her shorts as well. Starting from inside of her shorts, and reaching all the way to her knee was a phoenix, and he could see a feather on the inside of her left wrist. He could also see a glimpse of another quote on her left hip, with a picture of something undistinguishable poking out of her shorts right beneath that quote as well. On her right shoulder blade she seemed to have a picture of a black crow chasing a small butterfly. It was from a song that he remembered she used to listen to all the time that he used to hate.

He wouldn't admit that after she left, he actually grew quite fond of it.

That song was actually the reason he had a crow flying across his left breast, although he managed to hide that from his pack as well. When they asked him about it, he just shrugged his shoulders and told them that he thought crows were cool. He refused to put a butterfly on him though, because that's just gay. But as he stared at hers, he wished he just went through with it – it actually looked pretty cool.

"Uhh, I'll just come back later."

"You don't have to leave just 'cause I'm here," even her voice seemed to grow up, although it annoyed him to hear her smugness in it. Still paying attention to the TV, and focusing intently on the game in front of her, she said, "Two weeks of avoiding anywhere you might run into me, and the second you enter the same room as me you're already trying to run out; tell me, Lahote, have you really missed me that much?"

Lahote – he fucked things up so bad that even six years later she still refused to call him Paul. He growled though, and Jared gave him a cautious look. Sam may have let him get away with taking Cassie's virginity, for now, but he would definitely kill him if he accidentally phased and scarred her in the same way that Sam scarred Emily. "Looks like somebody came back with an attitude."

"I think it was the water," she snorted, still focusing in front of her. "Everybody in Jackson had sticks up their asses worse than the kids here on the rez. At least up there I blended in with the white people though, and the Indians took my side 'cause they liked my parents."

"Yeah, and was it the pale faces or the Indians that convinced you to be a bitch?"

"Both," she mused, shrugging her shoulders, "One thing was quickly agreed on no matter which side I was on though – we all hated the fucking Mexicans."

She talked more now. She spoke loudly with bravery in her voice, and the soft spoken Cassie that he remembered was gone now. And she spoke with a lingering bitterness. "So, you wanted something, Paul?"

Continuing to glare at the side of Cassie's head for a few more seconds, Paul ended up nodding his head. He looked up to find a bright gleam in Jared's eyes as he watched him. "Yeah, I was just thinking that maybe diving off the cliffs will help with my problem."

He didn't explain any further, because Cassie was there, but Jared understood what he was talking about. And then glancing between the two, Jared ended up giving Paul a pointed look, "_Or_ you can just stay and hang out for a bit. You can play video games with us; it'll be just like old times."

"If by old times you mean Lahote making comments about me being a white bitch that needs to learn her place, and then demanding that I make him a sandwich, then I'm glad I have to look at the apartment today."

Paul wanted to shout that he wasn't planning on acting like a kid anymore now that he was twenty-one, but Jared ended up saying, "Oh, right. I forgot about that. What time are you meeting with the realtor?"

"I have to be there by one."

"It's already twelve," Paul announced.

"Oh shit!" dropping the controller onto the couch, and then jumping up, Cassie pulled up a grey colored purse that looked knitted, and then said, "I gotta go! You still up for dinner, Jared?"

Nodding his head, and chuckling, Jared paused the game and then said, "Yeah, sure. Call me when you get back to the house. Good luck!"

Running towards the front door, and looking over her shoulder, she said, "Thanks," reaching Paul, and pushing past him, Cassie didn't even bother to look up at him, "Lahote."

"Uley," scowling when Jared started to laugh at him, Paul stalked to the couch and threw himself down onto it, "What is she doing looking at apartments?"

"The deal with Sam is that she'll stay with him and Emily until she can find her own place to live in, 'cause she refuses to live on the rez," he explained, turning the game back on and beginning to play it in Cassie's place. "They were both hoping that she'd at least stay with them until after the wedding, but she's been looking for places to stay since her first day here. She finally found an apartment she likes, and it's close enough to the school for her to walk to work every morning."

"She's not driving?"

"She sold her car to pay for the plane ticket out here, so she's using Sam's truck for now. He told her that she could just stay with them and then use his truck every day to get to work, or use the money she's planning on using for a place to get herself a car, but she's persistent 'bout getting her own place."

"When did she get into teaching?" Paul ended up asking, licking his lips and watching the guns on the screen shoot at the zombies. "The last you told us about her you said she was working at as a sort of tour guide person up in some mountains."

"Yeah, but she was in school for teaching. She worked as an EA sort of thing last year, and worked at the village once in a while, but she finally just got the okay to teach her own class."

"Then why didn't she just stay in Jackson Hole to do it?"

Jared shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know. I guess she just got over the place. She was telling all of us at Sam's house one day that it's pretty racist up there; more than when she was growing up here on the rez. She wasn't kidding when she said they all hate the Mexicans up there, and she's got this scar on her left eyebrow from when she got mobbed one night 'cause the other white people went against her for hanging out with the Indians up there. None of them knew that she was Indian too, well… you know what I mean."

Paul nodded, "Yeah, I know," that was why he always hated her too – because she was white pretending she was Indian. Of course, he knew better now, but back then he didn't. Not until it was too late. "Was she okay? How bad did they get her?" at least she'd never been mobbed here on the rez; not that he knew of at least. Although he had no doubt that it wasn't leading towards that if she didn't move.

"Yeah, she was fine. It was her first year living there, and other than a few bruises and a swollen lip, and that scar on her brow, she was okay. She said it was bad though, and that by her second year of living there she'd get in constant trouble for fighting because everybody went against her. She had a few friends, like she did here, but most of the white people hated her for being with the Indians, and some of the Indians hated her for being white with Indian parents. The Mexicans hated everyone that wasn't Mexican, and then she had to put up with all the tourists that thought they were better than everyone else."

"Damn," he tried to picture her fighting, but he couldn't see it. He'd known Cassie Uley for fifteen of her twenty-one years of living, and not once did she ever seem like someone who would fight.

A few days after sort of running into Cassie at Jared's house, Paul finally worked up the nerve to confront her about their past. He knew that he couldn't do it around the others, because she could never know that they knew the truth about it, but he was also sort of hoping that someone would at least be within earshot of them. He was hoping that if he knew somebody was listening in on them he wouldn't fuck it up and then make things worse. Maybe the reminder that he was under pressure by the pack to fix things up already before the nearing wedding would help him get it over with quickly.

Not bothering to call ahead, because Sam already knew what his plans were, Paul showed up at the Uley house. "Hey Emily."

Smiling kindly, the only one that hadn't turned against him because of something that happened when he was fifteen, Emily nodded her head at him, "Hey, Paul."

"Is Cas – Uley here?" he tensed and then paused, and then her last name came out of his mouth. Emily gave him a curious look when he stuttered on Cassie's name, but she didn't understand the fear in his eyes. He honestly didn't know whether he was about to call her Cassie or Casper – Cas came out, and he literally just stuttered over it.

Nodding her head eventually, she jerked her heads towards the back of the house, "She's out there with Sam. I'd be careful if I was you – neither of them are in a good mood."

Thanking Emily for her warning, and then trudging slowly towards where he could already hear the two Uleys arguing, Paul reached the sliding door of the back. Sam was standing there with both of his hands high in the air, and Cassie was frustrated to the point where her colorful hair resembled a nest because she was constantly scratching at it. "I am twenty-one-years-old, Sam – I'm going to go out with guys!"

"No – no, you're not!" Sam shouted at her, and Paul cringed. Sam's nose twitched and he knew that Paul was there, but he didn't let on that he noticed him. "You came here to be a teacher, Cass. Just focus on that instead of going out to bars and getting drunk!"

"I wasn't even drunk when I got home last night!" she cried out frantically. "I had one beer, Sam, ONE freaking beer! And I didn't even drive!"

"What the hell is everybody gonna think when they see you getting dropped off at the house at three in the morning by some random guy? You can't even tell me what his name is!"

Paul's jaw dropped when he realized what happened, and his heartbeat peaked when he heard the screeching reply, "Who the fuck cares what they think?! I am so fucking tired about worrying what everyone on this fucking rez thinks about me! I lived here for fifteen years while they thought the worst about me 'cause I'm white, and at this point I don't care if I live up to their expectations or not!"

"They're going to think you're some sort of whore!"

She laughed in his face. Cassie actually laughed at that. "Because I had sex with a guy whose name I can't remember? I'm twenty-one, Sam, and I'm fucking hot! And I like sex, and I like having sex with guys I don't have to see again; it's not a crime! Besides, I don't remember you caring what everybody on the rez thought about Emily when you left Leah to be with her all of a sudden? I remember when she tried to break things off with you 'cause they were all calling her a slut you tried to convince her that you knew she wasn't one, and then you got all mopey and ran away again when she turned you away. And now you're marrying her!"

"The situation with me and Emily is different!" he growled.

They were both fucked up. Paul fucked random girls that he didn't have to see again, and apparently Cassie fucked random guys that she didn't have to see again. He couldn't remember any of their names, and apparently neither could she.

They lost their virginity to each other at fifteen-years-old, and now at twenty-one they were both coasting their ways through life by fucking random strangers.

"Because she wasn't a whore, and I am?" Cassie challenged, bringing her arms to her chest and crossing them. Paul noticed that when she did that she pushed her breasts up, and they looked bigger now than when they were fifteen. He could still only see her from the side, but her breasts definitely grew from six years ago.

Sighing, Sam pinched his forehead, "Cass…"

"No," she snorted, "It's cool, Sam. Whatever," glancing up at the house now she noticed Paul standing there, and she looked back at her cousin before Paul could really see her, "I told Jared I'd go down to Forks with him to help him with some errands today," turning away before Sam could say anything else, she only looked back over her shoulder to shout, "I promise not to fuck him and tarnish the Uley name!" then just as she did at Jared's house, she didn't bother with looking up at Paul to say, "Lahote."

He only nodded his head, and said, "Uley."

Smelling the familiarity of the bothersome girl running in the forest, Paul rolled his eyes. Of course, the one night that Sam promised to keep all of the others out of the forest so that he could attempt to phase again would be the same night that Cassie decided to go running. He remembered that she did this when they were younger, and he remembered that there were a few nights when they ran into each other while both on late night jogs – something they always both complained to Jared about – but he didn't think she'd be doing this again so soon.

Then again, she was probably stressing. She wasn't allowed to move into her new apartment for another two weeks, the wedding was a week away and she was helping with it, and according to what Embry told him she and Sam were still fighting all the time because she refused to stop finding ways into Forks and hooking up with random guys at the bar and then having him drop her off at late hours in the morning. She didn't know that as a wolf Sam could still smell the lingering scent of sex on her as soon as she got home, so she didn't understand his frustrations, but it seemed like the more frustrated he got the more frustrated she became, and then she'd just go out and repeat the entire cycle.

It seemed ironic to everyone in the pack, barring Sam, but including Jared, that for two people who were the complete opposite just six years before they both turned into something similar.

Wanting to avoid her as best as possible, but also wanting to just get his apology over with before things at the wedding became too awkward between them, Paul followed Cassie's scent until he found her leaning against a tree and panting against it with her hands on her knees. Her hair was tied up into a messy knot, bringing back memories that shouldn't come out, and wearing a tiny pair of grey athletic shorts and just a pink sports bra, Cassie didn't even have an iPod to listen to.

She once admitted to him on their first ever collision in this very forest that she didn't like the music because it bothered her. She preferred to listen to the silence of nature while running at night because it was more soothing than listening to people screaming in her ears when she wanted to clear her mind.

"Uley?"

Lifting her head when she saw him, Cassie actually looked distraught. He knew that he was quite a sight to see when shirtless, but he never saw someone actually distraught over it before. "Did my cousin send you after me?" she ended up crying out in disbelief. "Honestly, he saw me leave the house looking like this – why the hell would I sneak out to a bar dressed like this?"

Unable to bite back his smirk, Paul said, "I'd buy you a drink if I saw you sitting in a bar dressed like that."

"Yeah, well with the rumors I've been hearing since I got back you'd buy anybody sitting in a bar a drink as long as they've got a twat."

"Says the chick that's been getting dropped off every night by a different guy at all hours."

Even in the darkness Paul could see the way that her brow twitched, and he noticed a lightened scar going through it as proof of when she got mobbed at just fifteen years old for being white with an Indian family. "Jealous, Lahote?" he remained silent because he was afraid of making some nasty remark about already being there first, and her brow twitched again. "Since when the hell were you friends with Sam anyway? When I was still living here, he had his own aged friends, and you and the boys kept away from him? Suddenly after a year of being gone I'm finding out from Jared, Jacob, and Sam that you're all always together? And from the moment I've been here the others all just walk into the house as if they live there too. You're the only one I haven't been seeing around except for a few days ago."

"Miss me, Uley?" this time she was the one that remained silent, and because she respected his silence he did the same for her, "We all got into some trouble, and he helped us out," it was the best response he could give without giving away the secrets of the pack, or alerting her that the legends were true.

"Yeah, well you can go back and assure him that I am actually just out for a jog. I'm all sweaty and everything."

Not wanting to point out that sweat could be caused from the very thing that her cousin hated her doing every night, Paul shook his head, "Sam doesn't know I'm out here. I actually…" he trailed off because he realized what had happened. Sam knew that he hadn't apologized yet, and he actually set it up for them to be alone long enough for him to talk to her. Had his alpha lost his damn mind, or did he just suddenly have that much faith in him to be alone with Cassie after what he witnessed in his memories?

"You were actually…?"

Realizing that he trailed off, and stopped talking altogether, Paul cleared his throat. "I wanted to talk to you."

"Oh," she frowned, "About what?" and then she groaned, "Ugh, is this about the wedding? Look, I already told Quil that-"

"No," he shook his head quickly, not wanting to talk about the wedding right now. And he could see that it obviously stressed her out. And the way that her heartbeat sped up he could actually hear how it stressed her out, "I wanted to talk about… well, about that day."

She looked confused for a moment, and Paul's heart dropped at the idea of her completely forgetting about what happened between them. He had begun to think that he hurt her that badly that she just pushed the memory out completely, but then a familiar musky smell reached his nose as if she grew aroused, and her face reddened, "Oh…"

Confused as to why he could smell an arousal coming from her at the mention of a day they both wanted to just forget about completely, Paul took a step closer to her. Her breath hitched at the movement, and he paused. What was wrong with her? "Look, Uley, I'm sorry about that day at school."

"You're apologizing for something that happened six years ago?" she gawked.

"I am," he nodded. "I – I was an asshole, okay. I've always been an asshole. And it wasn't fair to you. I don't know why I said what I said that morning, and I don't know why I kept fucking up my words when I tried to apologize you all that day, but I kept trying to apologize to you after that, and then when you came to Jared's house to say bye 'cause you were leaving I sort of just froze up. I didn't mean to chase you away."

"I – I gave you the chance to say bye," she ended up saying shyly, and as she bit her bottom lip Paul felt like they were fifteen again, "Or to say… something."

"I know," he took another step closer, and this time he could see the way her chest rose slowly at the gesture. "I wanted to say that I was sorry, but Jared and Jacob were right there and if I apologized they'd have wanted to know why. And I promised you I wouldn't tell them."

Chuckling, she gave him a curious look, "Even after six years you still didn't tell them?"

"Nope," it wasn't a lie. He didn't tell them verbally – they saw it in his mind. Well Jacob didn't. But he did laugh hysterically and say that he suspected that much after he saw the way they looked at each other when she came to say goodbye. Jared was the one who called to tell him about the memory. "You were right, Uley."

"About what?"

He took another step closer, and this time there was no questioning that Cassie was aroused by him. "You belonged here just as much as the rest of us did."

"I already know you thought that," she rolled her eyes. He took another step closer, and she watched him closely, "I wasn't an idiot, Lahote. I could feel it in your kiss when I snapped. Why do you think I gave you the condom, and allowed it to go further?"

"Oh…" another step closer.

"I always knew you were an asshole, Lahote, but I didn't think you were a liar too."

The final step brought him against her, and he brought his arms around her; caging her in. He stared down at her lips – lips that were once christened by his own. "And tell me, Uley, what did I lie about?"

"You said things were gonna be different; that we were gonna be friends," she put on a brave front, and if he wasn't a wolf he'd have fallen for her nonchalant attitude about having his arms boxing her head in, but the sound of her racing heart told him otherwise. The fever brought forth a growth spurt and he was six foot five now. She was as short as he remembered her to be, and her head reached his nipples. He looked down at her lips still, and she kept her focus on his chin; avoiding his eyes as she always did. "It was okay when I did it knowing that you hated me, 'cause I prepared myself not to care. But then after it was done, you stayed. You stayed, and we talked, and you said that things were gonna be different."

"I wanted us to be friends," he sighed.

She nodded her head, "Me too. But then you were crueler to me that morning than you'd ever been to me before."

"I'm sorry."

"You always say that, but I don't think it means what you think it means."

"It means that I regret not apologizing properly when I had the chance six years ago, and it means that I regret fucking up our chance to be friends back then."

It seemed like history had a habit of repeating itself.

Despite knowing how wrong it was, and knowing that his death was inevitable this time, Paul found himself apologizing to Cassie and then suddenly lips were on lips. She tasted of salt and sweat, and this time she definitely wasn't new to kissing. There was a time when he taught her, but now he swore that if he paid enough attention she could teach him. She did delicious things to his tongue that had him hardening in an instant at the thought of what that tongue could do to his cock.

They were no longer blushing virgins, and although he knew better, Paul found himself moving his arms so that his hands were cupping her ass. In a second Cassie had her legs wrapped around his waist and her hands were tangled in his messy hair. Her hips moved to their own accord, no longer shy with him, and his own hips jerked when she brought her teeth down to his bottom lip. She was a biter, and he mentally apologized to Sam and Jared for the new memories and thoughts he'd flood them with whenever he'd be able to phase again.

"Are you sure about this?"

The words brought back a dizzying spell of deja-vu to him, and it seemed to do the same to Cassie because soon she was muttering through their kiss, "Shut up."

Chuckling against her mouth, and pulling away from the kiss to bring his mouth to that sensitive spot that he still found on the first try even after six years of only touching her once, Paul felt her body arch into his as his tongue caressed it. She was sweating from her run, but he didn't care. Shifting her body so that she was resting against the tree, and so that he could support her with just one arm, Paul brought his other hand down to her shorts. Not bothering to be as polite as he was when they were first exploring each other, and extremely nervous about things like this, Paul groaned against her throat when he felt that she still kept her curls. There was less than before, but there was a neatly trimmed patch of blonde wiry curls that led him down to the very first dripping cunt that he ever experienced.

"Oh god…" she moaned out, proving that she learned to become vocal since they lost their virginities. That day she'd mostly just made sounds, but now she discovered the erotic sensations of adding in words, and it had him leaking in his jeans already.

Rubbing two of his fingers against her clit, Paul finally lowered them until he found her opening. "Yesssss…" he hissed, loving the way that her eager hole seemed to just suck his fingers in eagerly. Just like their first time she was hot and tight and throbbing around him. She felt as tight as their first time, and it had him ready to enter her with his cock already. "I can't wait," he growled.

Not complaining when his fingers pulled out of her after teasing her, Cassie helped him out by wiggling out of her shorts and spreading her legs to let them slide down her left one, and then she eagerly attacked his jeans to get them off of him already. It wasn't until she gasped "Fuck!" that Paul realized he entered her without any protection on.

She'd gotten a lot better since their first time, and if her moans and whimpers were anything to go by, he'd gotten a lot better as well. At this point in her life Cassie was experienced enough to no longer feel pain when doing this, and as Paul supported her with one arm and leaned against the tree with the other, Cassie clutched tightly to his shoulders with her nails; drawing blood. Her head rested against the tree, and her eyes were shut tightly. Her inner walls clenched tightly onto his cock, and then they released it, just to grip tightly to his cock again. Her hips met his for every rough thrust that he gave her, and they both knew that her back would be scratched up and that she would definitely feel some sort of tingling pain in the morning, but at this moment neither of them cared.

"L-L-Lahote!" she cried out, moving her hips erratically to the beat they were moving to, and Paul could smell their mixed arousal in the night's dead air. He prayed that none of the others came close enough to the woods to smell it too, and he thrust himself into her deeply, earning a long drawl of, "Ohhhhhhh god…" when he brushed up against the magical button inside of her.

"Fuck!" he groaned, opening his eyes long enough to see her biting her lip and her face wrinkling up. "D-Don't – hold – back!" he growled, twitching his hips and feeling the heels of her feet curl against his bare ass as he did so.

"Close – so close!" she gasped, moving one of her hands on his shoulder up above her head to grab onto the tree. Her body wiggled and writhed, and it felt like the she was trying to climb high and take him with her. With her eyes still shut, almost as if she was refusing to look at him and admit that she was with him right now, Cassie's breathing grew ragged until it was coming out in short breaths, and her hips began to twitch. "R-Right there, Lahote – right – there! Fuck!"

Her words – god her words had him thrusting into her harder and faster. Angling his body so that he could he hit her right where it had her squealing in delight, Paul could hear his own breathing grow raspy, and feeling her walls tighten around to the point where it was impossible to move, Paul found his release as well. Crying out her actual name again, just as he did the first time, Paul felt her cunt still twitching around him as she milked his cock dry. "Damn."

"So much better without the fumbling," she nodded in agreement, sighing heavily as her entire body relaxed. Instead of collapsing forward like he expected her to though she slumped against the tree and began to unwrap her legs from around him, letting him know that they were finished now.

And then her eyes opened.

It wasn't what he thought it would be. It was nothing like the rumors that he heard whispered, or the explained tales from the others, but it was something new altogether. It was frightening, threatening, amazing, and it was nothing.

He'd seen her a total of three times since she'd been back on the rez, and it was fine. And even all this time that they'd been talking, and then fucking, it had been nothing, but then she opened her eyes while he was still staring down at her. It was almost cliché like what happened when his eyes met hers. There was a glow around her so bright that it seemed to light up the entire forest, and somewhere in the distance he swore he heard angels singing, and he felt as if he were falling through the sky. It was like he jumped off the cliff again, but he couldn't land this time. He was forever falling, never landing.

And in that moment Paul Lahote knew that Cassie Uley would literally be the cause of his death.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I'm so sorry that I'm posting this chapter up a few weeks late! I ended up getting really sick – first I had strep throat, and then I ended up with pneumonia while still having strep throat. Then I went back to work for two days, and ended up with pneumonia again. And then once I was finally feeling better, my internet got shut off because I forgot to pay the bill, and then my stupid laptop broke. Thankfully though, I have like 5 or 6 flashkey thingies now that I saved all of my new stories onto – I learned after I kept losing all of my other ones! So anyways, I ended up paying my internet bill today, and I also bought me a new laptop today. So, because I'm about three weeks behind on posting up chapters, I promise every single one of you that I'm going to post two more chapters between tomorrow and Sunday!**

**Also Happy Gobble Gobble Day everyone – I hope that every single one of you eats until you get fat!**

Chapter Three

She told him to take off, but he couldn't do it. He'd just found her, and he didn't ever want to leave her side; not when the last time they had sex she ended up moving to another state just to avoid him. Helping her pull on her shorts and panties, he quickly pulled on his own cut-offs and then he dusted off her back and helped to clean out the bark from her hair as best he could. Explaining that there have been murders in these woods, without admitting that the murders were five years ago, Paul refused to let her walk home alone.

"Cassie, get inside the house!"

Jumping when she heard the deep tone in Sam's voice, Cassie glanced nervously at Paul. She was about to defend him, just as she did those many years ago, but this time it was Paul who moved in front of her swiftly. Placing one hand behind him, to make sure she was safe where she was, Paul stared up at his alpha and with his own throaty growl he loudly said, "Don't talk to her like that!"

Sam's eyes widened at once, and he took a startled step back. Glancing between the protective stance of Paul, and back at his confused and slightly frightened little cousin, Sam paled. Paul could see the thoughts turning his head – the protective cousin side of him wanted to murder Paul for smelling like sex and returning with Cassie, but the shape-shifter wolf side of him was glad to see that his beta finally found his imprint. And the alpha side of him wanted to be selfish and demand that Paul leave and never contact Cassie again. It was impossible, but Paul knew that Sam would at least attempt to make the order.

Emily was standing there too, looking like she was ready to jump in and stop Sam from murdering Paul once Sam ran outside because of the wafting scents walking towards the house, but when she heard the way that Paul spoke to Sam while standing in front of Cassie, and when she saw how her fiancé backed away, her eyes widened. "Oh god," gasping loudly, and flying both of her hands to her mouth, she ended up looking between all three with a fearful look on her face, "Uhh, Cassie, darling, why don't you come inside and take a shower? You must be sweaty from your run."

Emily wasn't a threat, so Paul allowed Cassie to walk away from him without even flinching, but he kept a watchful stare on Sam to make sure that he stayed away from his imprint. Cassie may have been Sam's cousin, but he knew that they'd been fighting a lot – he wouldn't allow that to happen again. Cassie wasn't an idiot though; she knew that something was wrong. She didn't know what it was, but she knew that it was there. "Thanks," she ended up saying oddly, looking back at Paul after giving her cousin a nervous look, "For walking me back, Lahote."

Lahote – she accepted his apology, but she still took to calling him that damn name. Making it a mission to have her calling him Paul again, he nodded his head at her and even flashed a genuine smile, "Goodnight, Uley," good, at least the wolf in him had enough logic to still call her by her last name.

They waited until they could hear the shower running from inside the house. Emily was pacing nervously in her bedroom, waiting for Sam to return to her, and Cassie was already in the shower before Sam's face faltered and he looked disappointed, "Really, Paul – of all the fucking people to imprint on; my cousin?!"

"You of all people should understand that I can't control who it chooses!" he snapped, feeling his chest heaving in anger. He just had sex, but he already knew he couldn't go out and have sex again to release the rage building up inside of him – not when his imprint was inside of the house and showering. And he couldn't approach her so soon after saying goodnight; not without pushing her away.

"I would have preferred Jared!"

Sam's words bit at him, and Paul took a step forward, "If Jared goes anywhere near her I will fucking tear him to shreds!" it didn't matter that she and Jared were best friends, just as he and Jared were, if Jared attempted to touch his imprint or make any sort of move on her he would actually kill him – this was the only warning that Jared would get!

Seeing the threat in Paul's blackening eyes, and hearing the murderous snarl in his throat, Sam took in a deep breath and slowly counted to three, "You have temper problems, Paul."

"I can't even fucking phase!"

From inside the shower in the house Paul could hear Cassie humming to herself. It was a song he didn't recognize. "But we don't know how long this weird stage of yours is going to last," Sam reminded him, also glancing in the direction of the cheerful humming. Unlike Paul's content look though, Sam looked annoyed. "I can't control what happens between you and my cousin now, but I don't like this at all! Not until you can prove to me that she'll be safe with you! I understand how a new imprint works, even years into the relationship, and I know what has to happen next, but until I can trust you with her somebody will always be there to watch you guys. I will always have someone on shift to watch the two of you. You can't go without her being glued to your side, but you will never be alone."

"Even when I mark her?"

Cringing at the knowing thought of what will have to happen during the marking of the imprint, and not looking too excited at the idea of having Paul phasing again anytime soon so that he would see his own little cousin having sex, Sam bitterly said, "It will be too dangerous to have another wolf close during the marking ritual, but the two of you seem to do that part just fine without anybody nearby…"

The smirk appeared before he could stop it, and when Sam glared at him hotly, Paul even dared to snicker a little, "I wonder if that's how Seth feels every time you phase and he has to see you and his cousin? Or if that was how he felt every time Leah phased and he had to see her with you, or those other guys she found to keep herself occupied?"

"Shut up, Paul!"

"The two of you can compare stories now."

"I will order you to fucking run all night if you don't shut up about that right now!"

Sighing because running all night sounded too exhausting after doing what he just did, and then finding out he imprinted right after, Paul rubbed at his hair with both hands, "What happens now? When do I tell her the truth?"

"After the wedding."

"After the – after the wedding?!" his eyes bulged, "Sam, that's a week from now! How am I supposed to explain my constant need to be close to her for an entire week without telling her the truth? A day or two, yeah, but I can't go a week without telling her."

"I went an entire month without telling Emily the truth about why I left her cousin for her," Sam said in a challenging tone. "Cassie's the one that's helping to plan for the wedding, and she's creating the centerpieces all by herself. If you tell her before she's going to either become too freaked out and we're going to have to cancel the wedding to keep her from running away, or she's going to become so paranoid about leaving your side that she won't get anything done, _or_ she's going to overthink everything and forget about the wedding altogether. And this wedding is the most important thing to _my_ imprint!"

Sighing, Paul knew that Sam was right. The wedding had constantly kept getting postponed for years now, and Emily will only become depressed if it was postponed another time. "I'll tell her after the wedding," he ended up nodding his head. "What do I do now?"

"Go home and get some sleep," Sam sighed, shaking his head. "The weight of the imprint exhausts you for the first couple of nights, and Cassie needs to sleep too. She doesn't know why, but right now you're heavy on her mind and her thoughts will continue to wrestle with each other until she falls into a fitful sleep. Emily's been through it, and she didn't understand it either, but she'll be here to help ease Cassie into it as best as she can without saying anything," Paul nodded his head, trusting Sam and Emily to take care of Cassie because they both loved her a lot – she was their family. "Oh, and Paul…"

He turned around, "Yeah?"

"You should probably stop at Jared's first to tell him about this in person. I'm patrolling with him in the morning, and I know he'll have a fit if he sees about this in my mind."

Sighing, Paul groaned and brought both hands to his face, "You Uleys are all out to get me."

The first punch had been expected, and even the second. But when Paul braced himself for the third punch, he found that it never came. Opening his eyes slowly, in case it was a trick, he found Jared just standing there and staring at him. It was no secret that Jared had liked Cassie when they were younger, and even _Sam_ knew that he still harbored the crush in all their years of keeping in touch over the phone, but even Paul realized that from the moment Cassie made it known she was coming back home Jared hoped he imprinted on her. Paul would kill Jared if tried to get to _his_ Cassie, but Paul also respected that Jared was going to take this hard.

"You're sure?" Paul nodded his head. Flopping his body down onto the couch, Jared released a scornful chuckle, "You didn't even like her. You were an asshole to her all of our lives, and now suddenly you're meant to be her soul mate?! Leah's right – imprinting fucking sucks!"

"I – I feel bad, 'cause I know you're best friends, and I know that you like her," Paul said shortly, "But the wolf in me wants to tear you to shreds right now for liking her. The human side of me kind of wants to buy you a shot right now to make it up to you, but the wolf side of me is warning you to stay away from her."

"I know how it works," Jared snapped, scowling up at him. "I'm not fucking stupid, Paul, I know how imprinting works! I'm not going to go after her, and now that I know she'll never be more than my best friend, I'm not even gonna bother trying to impress her anymore, but she's still my best friend, and I still love her as so – if you hurt her I will hurt you, Paul! You better watch your temper around her, and you better make sure that your human side falls in love with her too! She cried enough because of you when we were younger, and I don't wanna see her crying anymore! It's one thing when you both agree to a quickie in the forest with no plans of a future together, but if you're both gonna be forced to love each other _you_ better do it right!"

"I'm not going to hurt her!" Paul shouted, frustrated that both Sam and Jared felt the need to threaten him. Jacob wasn't threatened by anyone in the pack to keep from hurting Renesmee, and he doubted that Sam was threatened to keep from hurting Emily – "I literally cannot hurt her! It would _kill_ me!"

"_I'll _kill you!" snarled Jared, glaring up at him from his seat on the couch. "I love that girl, Paul. Not in the way that you're suddenly feeling towards her, but when _you_ were mocking her for being pale, and shouting at her to go and look for her birth parents, _I_ was the one inviting her over to play. I was the one who listened when she spoke, and unlike you I didn't suddenly realize she cried out of the blue one day after school. _I_ was the one who dealt with her loud sobs and her runny tears from day one because she couldn't understand why everybody blamed her for being white! _I_ was the one that accepted her, and _I_ was the one that she confided in every damn time something hurt her! 'Til this day I'm still the one she runs to! You're not the only one that's good at hiding thoughts and memories, Paul, and I don't give a fuck if she's your imprinted mate all of a sudden – I am warning you right now that if you hurt her I will fucking kill you!"

In that moment Paul respected Jared.

There was no jealousy, no fear of Cassie being stolen from him, and no rage – both the wolf and the human in him respected Jared. Cassie would be safe with him at all times, and the wolf saw Jared as a brother who would protect his imprint no matter what it took. Paul always knew that Jared would attack him when he was a prick to her in the past, and the wolf knew that Jared's wolf would attack him as well.

Jared wasn't a threat.

He was a protector.

Sitting in the kitchen of Sam's house, with a full plate of food in front of him, Paul could hear Cassie moving around from the bedroom she was staying in while here. Emily was still at the stove, making more breakfast, and Sam was sitting across from him with a murderous glare on his face. Paul knew that he should have been at home sleeping right now, but he couldn't sleep. He was dead exhausted, but his eyes wouldn't shut.

Well they would shut, but then he'd just open them again because every time they were closed, he would see himself at fifteen again, and telling Casper that Jared was only her friend because he pitied her. For six years the guilt ate at him, but now that she was his imprint and there was suddenly a large amount of love that he felt for her, the guilt intensified into worry.

How could he sleep when his imprint might deny him and then tell him to fuck off?

His eyes were already glued to the kitchen door when it opened, and his heart leapt when he saw her wearing a yellow colored pair of jean shorts and a white cropped top with little black butterflies on it. With her hair braided back tightly, and wearing the same knitted purse from Jared's house over her shoulder, Cassie frowned when she saw him. Growing nauseated when he saw her reaction, especially since he greeted her with a bright grin, Cassie's rainy eyes shifted between him and Sam.

"How did you sleep last night, Cassie?"

Turning her attention to Emily, who was pouring a glass of orange juice, Cassie smiled wearily. They all saw the way she glanced at Paul before looking back up at her soon-to-be official cousin-in-law… older sister really seeing as how Sam was more like a brother than just a cousin, "I slept fine. I don't know how you can ever get any sleep, Em," she ended up chuckling, walking up to the stove and accepting the orange juice with a thanks, "I can hear Sam snoring from down the hall, so I can only imagine what it's like for you being in the same bed as him."

"I don't snore that loud!"

"Yes, you do!" Paul, Emily, and Cassie all said in unison. Paul's face lit up when he heard the way that Cassie laughed. He'd heard her laugh all the time when Jared used to bring her around, well whenever he wasn't too close to her to keep her on edge, but this time her laughter echoed in his ears like bells.

Sam rolled his eyes at all three of them, and then catching the look that his fiancée gave him he sighed and angrily bit into a sausage link, "Cass, I got a call this morning and there's something that I have to do that I can't get out of."

"What?!" Paul winced when he heard her voice reach a near screeching sound, and he could hear the way her heart beat against her chest to a slow and frantic pace, "Sam, you said that I could use the truck today to go into town for the last minute things! I have to get them today or else there won't be any centerpieces for the wedding!"

"Sorry," he shook his head, "I can't get out of it!"

"Can't I just drop you off?"

"I need the truck. I've got to run deliveries."

"Emily, can I drop you off at work and then use your car?"

Paul watched Emily nervously, actually biting his lip as he did so. Emily was against this plan from the beginning when he arrived an hour before, but with a nod from Sam she ended up giving the frantic girl an apologetic look, "Sorry, Cassie, but it's not working properly. Sam's going to drop me off before picking up the lumber he needs to deliver."

A soft squeal escaped Cassie's throat, a squeal that only someone with extremely sensitive hearing could hear, and she placed the glass of orange juice on the counter with shaky hands. Paul's chest began to ache to see and feel his imprint so distressed. And her chest contracted as if she was about to enter a panic attack, and her face crumbled. "That's why I'm here," he ended up saying, drawing attention to himself. When Cassie only blinked her eyes at him, he chuckled, "Sam called me and asked for help."

Paul could see Sam resisting the urge to punch him right there at the table. This was all his idea, and Sam only went along with it because he understood Paul's constant need to be near his imprint at all times. This was the only way they could do it without him looking like a stalker – they had to manipulate Cassie into thinking he was some sort of knight-in-shining-freaking-armor! "What?" her confusion turned into something similar to disbelief. Neither of them blamed her – she knew that Sam knew what she and Paul had done the night before.

"I know how much work you're putting into helping out with the wedding, and I know that you have your heart on these particular centerpieces to make it perfect for me and Emily," Sam ended up saying flatly. Paul wanted to kick him; he could at least make it not sound like he was being held at gunpoint, "And I remembered Paul telling me a couple of weeks ago to let him know if he could help with anything. He's the only one that doesn't have to work today," actually he called in sick, and forced Seth to take his place at the garage, "So I called him to see if he could drive you into Forks."

Cassie took in a deep breath, and Paul could sense her frustration. He didn't blame her; if the imprint didn't make him fall in love with her so suddenly, he'd have been frustrated too – nothing good ever happened when they were alone together. But she didn't say anything, so he began to worry and it pinched at him. "I have to run a few errands for my dad anyways," he ended up saying as casually as he could to keep from sounding like a liar. His dad had been asking him to fix the shower for a while now, so he might as well get it done with already… especially if it would give him the perfect excuse to spend the entire day in Forks with Cassie.

"Shouldn't you just focus on that then? I can just call Jared and ask to use his car since he's at work," she said, and Paul quirked an eyebrow. Emily couldn't hear it, but he and Sam could – she was afraid. Cassie was afraid to be alone with Paul.

He hadn't expected her to be afraid to be alone with him, or to ruin his plan by volunteering to just use Jared's car since he was at work, and he mentally slapped himself. He should have made a stronger reason to force her to be alone with him. "I just have to stop at the hardware store for a few items 'cause the shower at home is broken," he shook his head, pleased with his ability to keep a straight face on right now. It disgusted him how much he just wanted to hold her in his arms right now and comfort her. Imprint or not – he still had some of his feelings, and as far as he was concerned cuddling was never an option. "Besides I wanna do something to at least say I helped out with the wedding, even if it's just driving you around all day," he shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, "It's not like I've got anything better to do."

He twitched in his jeans when he saw the way that she bit her lip, causing Sam to growl at him beneath his breath, and he watched her face as she tried to find more excuses to avoid him. After a couple of minutes of thinking, Cassie looked defeated, "Fine. Are you ready to leave now?"

"Cass, you didn't even eat breakfast."

Giving Sam a rushed look, Cassie said, "I told you I had to start early today. I should have started the centerpieces as soon as I got here, instead of waiting until _six_ days before the wedding. I hope you're prepared for a lot of running around, Lahote – we've got to hit up at _least _thirteen different shops."

Thirteen? Just thirteen – he'd been hoping that Cassie would have him driving out to Port Angeles by the end of the day just to finish her errands. "It's no problem," he said, standing up. "We can pick something up for you to eat on the way."

"Thanks," giving Emily a quick kiss on her cheek, and accepting a piece of toast already buttered, Cassie gave her cousin a kiss as well, and then followed Paul out of the kitchen. Paul's back was to her as he led her out of the house completely, but he could already hear her soft ragged breaths as she tried to control whatever thoughts were happening in her head.

Now that Sam couldn't see him, he was smirking.

Cassie had been wet from the second she saw him sitting there in the kitchen without a shirt on; his shoulders still marked from her nails. And when she had her back to him in the kitchen he could see the scratches marring her from the tree. Everyone in Forks would see that they belonged together – the beauty and the beast; both scratched up.

"So, what's up with your hair?" he asked, driving past the cliffs and finally giving in to be the one to break their awkward silence first.

Leaning closely against her door, with her purse separating them, Cassie made it a point to stare out of the window with her bottom lip between her teeth. "What do you mean?" she asked, still staring out the window.

"Why's it pink and blue?"

"There's purple in it too."

"Yeah, but only where the pink and blue collide, so I'm guessing that you didn't do that part purposely."

Laughing, Cassie finally looked away from the window. Paul noticed that she wasn't wearing any sort of makeup at all. "I like cotton candy."

"You like cotton candy?" quirking a brow, and shifting gears, he glanced down at her in curiosity. "You dyed your hair pink and blue 'cause you like cotton candy?"

"I like the way the colors swirl when you mix it," she shrugged, "I've had it just blue before, and then just pink, but never together, so I decided to try it out."  
"It's pretty cool," he admitted. He had to prove to her that he wasn't an asshole anymore. They could have normal conversations about normal things, and soon she'll see that he's not so bad. "I remember how you used to dye your hair that scarlet color all the time before you left, when'd you start making it other colors?"

He could sense her confusion without having to depend on his wolfish abilities, and he could see the way that she stared up at him blankly when he looked down at her to see why she was still quiet. When she realized that he was being serious, and that he actually wanted to know about her hair, Cassie ended up saying, "Umm… it was my junior year in school, a year after we moved up there. The guy that I was dating," Paul's nose flared and he clenched his jaw while his grip on the steering wheel tightened once he heard her mention an ex, "Had this older sister who worked at the Dollar Tree. And she was working one day when I went in to buy the scarlet color I used to always use, and she told me they got some boxes in of funny colors. It was the temporary kind that washed out within a week, but it was still fun to try. After about two months of playing with those ones I started to buy the Splat dyes, so they'd last longer. I don't always keep the colors in though. Sometimes I give my hair a break and I keep it blonde, or I like to bleach it to an almost white color."

Remembering the breathing technique that was taught to him five years before to keep from losing his anger, and also thinking of how Sam accidentally scarred Emily when phasing because of how pissed he was, Paul could feel the way Cassie stared at him. He doubted that he'd phase right now since he couldn't phase in general, but he didn't want to chance it. "Guy you were dating, huh?" now that he thought about it, he remembered Jared telling them about Cassie dating some guy in a few of her classes. That was when Paul learned that having sex with random girls helped him out in more ways than just getting off.

Snorting, Cassie began to look a little more comfortable as she pulled away from the door to sort of sit normally, "Yeah."

The wolf inside of him howled in relief when he heard her bitter reply. His imprint had no lingering feelings for this ex of hers. "You don't sound too happy."

It was as if she forgot who she was talking to, "He was a total asshole," scoffing, she brought one hand up to her hair as if wanting to run her fingers through her hair but then she remembered her hair was braided, so she began to play with the braid instead. "In the beginning he was cool, but when we made six months he wanted to have sex."

"You would have been sixteen if this was your junior year…" he pointed out. He didn't _expect_ sex at sixteen years old; although he did get a lot of it.

Giving him a dumbfounded look, Cassie said, "Says the one who lost his virginity when he was fifteen," reddening when he realized that she was right, and not bothering to hide his smug smirk at the fact that he'd been her first, Paul just shrugged his shoulders. "Anyways, I told him I didn't want to, and he got sort of distant with me. A month later I found him fucking some chick from Star Valley at his house. I stopped by 'cause I realized that it was stupid to turn him down just 'cause I thought of you, but then…"

Paul's eyes widened and when he glanced over at her he saw that her entire face was bright already. She looked embarrassed and stunned, obviously not meaning to admit what she did. She looked confused at what she said, and as to why she said it, and Paul struggled to keep from cheering loudly that she still thought about him after she moved away. "But then…?" he didn't want to make her feel awkward. He heard her slip up, but he wouldn't push her for an explanation – not this second at least.

"Umm…" her voice was meek, "But then I saw him fucking her. He didn't even stop when he saw me. He just kept going at it, and then told me that it's my own fault for denying him."

"What a fucking asshole!" he was seething inside, but he couldn't determine if it was because of the pain in her voice as she spoke or because of the way the jerk treated her. In that moment he couldn't figure out if it was the wolf seething or if it was just him. Where did the line go to – where did the wolf and the human in him determine what to care about when it came to Cassie? "Please tell me you killed them."

Shaking her head, Cassie said, "It wasn't worth it. I'm not going to fight over a guy, Lahote; especially an ass like that one. Yeah, it sucked, but I got over it within a week."

"Did Jared know?" he questioned, planning on ambushing Jared later that night to find out more information.

She shook her head again, "Jared knew that I was dating Ben, but I didn't tell him about the sex thing. He would've asked too much questions, and I didn't want to let it slip about what happened that day. When I called him to tell him that I broke up with Mike I just told him that I was over it already. I didn't want to talk about sex at all."

"You avoided talking to your best friend about something that he could have comforted you about just because you didn't want to talk about sex?" he didn't believe her – as shy as she was that day she was the one who could say the words without stuttering, and even now she spoke about it freely.

Her sigh was so soft that Paul could barely hear it, even with his sensitive hearing, and then she started to scratch her left arm. "Jared called me a few weeks before the breakup to tell me that he lost his virginity, and he even went into a very detailed account of it. I love him and all, but I do think that there should be _some_ secrets between us. Especially at that age," she shuddered, and Paul laughed, "But after that he kept talking about it, and then he asked me one night on the phone if _I_ had sex yet."

Paul remembered that actually. Jared's fever kicked in just a day after Paul's did, and they were both two months into being a wolf when Jared told them all that Cassie was dating some guy, and three nights later Paul had sex for the second time in his life. After a while of looking into his mind and constantly seeing his trysts while running on patrol, Jared finally decided to see if having sex randomly would help him control his anger too. Everybody in the pack believed that Paul lost his virginity to the first girl he showed to them, and he let them think what they wanted because he didn't want to talk about Cassie. So, when Jared asked him for advice, Paul just recounted what he knew the others all saw.

He talked about losing his virginity as something without emotions. He told Jared how he didn't even remember the girl's name, despite her sitting next to him in his English class, and he lied about how amazing it felt for him. He didn't admit that it was with Cassie, or that there was awkward fumbling, or weird sensations, and he definitely didn't mention how it was so hard to concentrate because he thought he would bust early and then ruin it for her completely.

But Paul shouldn't have lied and made his first time sound so good, because when Jared went out and found a girl to have sex with, the entire pack teased him all the way up until things with Bella starting getting serious. They still liked to tease him from time to time when bored…

But Paul also very clearly remembered the day that they were hanging out at Seth's one day, and Leah came out into the garage to ask Jared for Cassie's address because she lost the slip of paper that she kept it on, and she wanted to send up a few things for her. After Leah left them, Embry asked how Cassie was doing, and Jared started to laugh.

When he asked Cassie if she was still a virgin, she dropped the phone and then when she picked it back up, she started to sputter. According to Jared, and the memory they all saw later that day, it took her a few minutes before she finally calmed herself down enough to say that she was. And then when Jared asked her if she'd tell him about it when she did finally lose her virginity, Paul was the only one who understood the guilt in her voice when she said she would.

That was first time Paul had a threesome.

And that was also why Jared was even more pissed when he found out the truth – his two best friends both lied to him.

They were all entering the senior year in high school when he and Jared were patrolling the forest one night, and Jared couldn't block his mind quick enough – Cassie called him that morning to tell him that she lost her virginity to her newest boyfriend at the time. Paul could hear the slight excitement in her voice when she told a story not nearly close to the truth of when she lost it, and he noticed the way she made sure to add in some bullshit lie about how it wasn't as painful as she thought it would be.

The bitch wouldn't let him move for five minutes because of how much it hurt her.

And there was no awkwardness with the condom, or any fear about being seen naked for the first time; no tomato red skin, no blushing profusely… The story that she told to Jared was almost identical to the one that Paul told him – too good of a well-practiced lie with the memory of their second time and no truth about their actual first time.

That night Paul had anal sex for the first time.

"What did you tell him?" he asked, clearing his throat and avoiding her eyes. She thought he couldn't look at her because he was still embarrassed about that day, but he couldn't look at her because he already knew the truth. And because he was struggling with mixed emotions right now as the memories flooded him. This was the point in his annoyance and anger where he'd usually be hunting for some chick to forget about by the end of the night. But he couldn't – the only chick he ever wanted to touch was Cassie, and at the moment they were running errands. And her arousal was gone.

"That I was still a virgin. He would've asked me questions, and I knew he wouldn't like the answers. So, I lied about it."

"Does he – umm, does he still think you're a virgin?"

It was a stupid question, and Cassie started to actually laugh at him, "He's not an idiot, Lahote. Plus, Sam definitely knows what we did last night, and Jared's most likely going to find out by the end of the day. I called him two or three months later, right after senior year started up, and ended up just describing the night before with my newest boyfriend at the time."

"And that was your first time since… us?" he lifted a brow, and shifted his eyes at her. Her body tensed at his usage of words, and her heart slowed down a little.

Biting her bottom lip once more, not knowing what the gesture did to Paul, Cassie ended up nodding her head nervously, "Yeah."

"Why'd you wait so long?"

Shrugging hesitantly, she stared at him closely; trying to figure out what it was that he was trying to do. "How long did you wait?"

This time Paul was the one who tensed, not expecting her to flip it back onto him, but when he looked around at her he saw that she was still staring at him. He sighed, and then looked back at the road, "Junior year," he didn't bother to explain that it was around the time she got her boyfriend.

"Oh…" turning away, and looking back out of her window, she inhaled deeply. "I had a few friends in Jackson, some white and some Indian, but it's a racist town and most of the kids reminded me of you guys on the rez," Paul flinched when she grouped him in with the others, "But it was still different. I got picked on, but not for being ugly or anything like that, and the guys there were attracted to me. It took me a while to even agree to a date with Ben 'cause I was so nervous that it was a dare 'cause that's what I'm used to – anybody that's not Jared or his best friends only talked to me 'cause they were dared to. And so, when Ben wanted to have sex with me when we made six months I got really afraid."

Paul's heart was in his chest, and he paled, "You thought he was gonna be an asshole to you the next morning, and then chase you away…" realizing that he haunted Cassie all these years, as much as she haunted him, Paul was able to ignore the howling wolf inside of him. It wasn't where he hurt his imprint; he had emotionally scarred an innocent girl. "I'm sorry, Uley."

"Stop saying that," she said softly, continuing to stare out the window, "Just stop apologizing already, Lahote. We're not fifteen anymore, and you've obviously learned how to speak to me nicely the morning after. I was just sixteen, and still trying to get used to the difference between La Push and Jackson."

"Yeah," he nodded, clearing his throat. "So, where are we going first?"


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Just a head's up everyone – this chapter has a rated-X scene in it!**

Chapter Four

"What the fuck are you doing here?"

Looking just as annoyed as he did, the leech stalked towards him the way a cat walks towards a mouse. Her hips were swaying as she walked gracefully, and her long blonde strands were tossed over her right shoulder. "Sam called," she said icily, "And he explained to us that you've imprinted on his baby cousin. I could care less, but Esme agreed to keep a close eye on you two while in Forks since the other dogs are all busy at work. The deal is that the dogs spy on you two in La Push, and we'll spy on you two in town."

Paul's eyes widened in shock, and his blood boiled deep within. "We're in the middle of a fucking town – what the hell's going to happen here?!"

Shrugging her shoulders, she said, "Carlisle's at the hospital, Esme says that the girl might feel more comfortable running into somebody close looking to her own age, and Emmett already knows not to come around her until she's been marked. I was the only one left."

"I don't want you here."

"And I don't want to be here, but Sam helped us out in the end. And I can tolerate him and Emily, so I'm agreeing to help them out. And I also want to check out the poor girl that's stuck with _you_ for the rest of her life."

Clenching his fist, Paul took a step back to keep from punching Rosalie Hale right through the damn windows of the store. Shutting his eyes and breathing in deeply, he opened his eyes to find her still standing there. He was about to argue that she could spy on them from a distance without actually _being_ here, but Cassie came walking around the aisle. She was holding two separate bags of candies in her hands, and looking down at them both, "Hey, Lahote, do you think everyone would – oh, hi."

Lifting a brow and giving Paul a slightly impressed look when Cassie glanced at him, Rosalie's red painted lips curled into a feral grin, "Hello. You must be Cassie."

"Huh?"

"I just ran into Paul, and he told me that he was running some errands with Sam's cousin Cassie," Rosalie explained.

"Oh," doing a little happy dance inside because he could see the way that Cassie's blood was rising to her cheeks while he could also sense a little jealousy and annoyance towards the leech, Paul watched as Cassie forced a smile onto her face, "Yeah, he's the only one who could bring me into town today. So, you're a friend of Sam's then?"

Cassie noticed the quick glance exchanged between the two, and Paul could feel her jealousy rising, "Umm sort of," Rosalie ended up nodding. "My brother and his wife got into some trouble a few years back, and the pa – Sam and all of his friends helped us out."

"He seems to be doing that a lot now, doesn't he," she muttered beneath her breath.

Chuckling, Paul said, "Do you remember Bella Swan?"

"You mean the only other white girl that used to practically live on the rez during the summers? Of course, I remember her."

"She married Rosalie's brother Edward."

"Oh, Edward Cullen!" this time the recognition shone brightly in Cassie's eyes, and her smile turned into a genuine one, "Right," looking completely at the surprised leech, she said, "I sort of met them a few years ago when I was eighteen. Jacob called me one day and said that he had these two friends that were gonna be in Jackson for a day, and that he gave them something for me. I completely forgot about that – I didn't even realize that was Bella Swan. Honestly, I don't think she recognized me either."

"Oh, right," this time Rosalie looked at ease too, "Edward told us about that. You ended up taking them up to the mountains for free on the tram, right?"

"Yeah! They came to the village that I worked at to drop off the gift, and when I asked if they already did what they came to do they said yeah so I told them that I could get them on the tram for free if they wanted to check out the mountains, and they were all for it."

Paul frowned at once, and he reminded himself to call Jacob to find out why he didn't tell anyone in the pack about it. And he wanted to know if Jared knew about it too – just what exactly did Jared mean that Paul wasn't the only one who was good at completely hiding things when phased? "You and Bella were friends when she used to come around, how could you guys not recognize each other?"

Cassie shrugged. "I met them as Bella and Edward Cullen, and it's not as if I'm gonna go around telling everyone I meet my last name. They just knew me as Jacob's friend Cassie, and I knew them as Jacob's friends too. And it was only for a few minutes. They gave me the gift, we talked for a minute or two, and then I got them on the tram. They must have loved it too 'cause I got them up at ten in the morning, and I left work at four, and they were still up there. They probably caught the last tram down at six."

"So, you kept in touch with Jake after you moved?" how come he didn't know about that? Jacob never told any of them about phone conversations with her, and he never saw anything about her in his mind before.

"No, not really. He called Jared for my number. I talked to him a few times since then though," she gave Paul a weary look, confused about his questions, and then looked back up at Rosalie, "How did they like Jackson Hole?"

"They loved it!" Rosalie said, giving Paul a cautious look to keep his cool. He didn't realize why she'd look at him like that until she said, "They were visiting some cousins of ours that love to hunt," Paul's entire body twitched, and he could feel the way his body began to heat up. "They loved the scenery though. Bella said she might want to move out there one day."

"It's a pretty place, but as someone that's lived there for six years it's not _that_ great. Well, they're white so they might be okay. But Jacob told me he's staying with them, and helping them out with their kid, so I don't know about that – multi-raced families are frowned upon down there."

Clenching his teeth tightly, Paul tried not to look too threatening as he glared darkly at Rosalie, "Uley, don't you have to finish up your shopping?"

"Huh?" seeing the furious way that Paul looked, and also see the guilty way that Rosalie avoided looking at him, Cassie said, "Oh, right. But listen, do you think everyone would prefer _just_ m&m's or have another candy mixed in with it?" lifting the two bags for both Rosalie and Paul to look at, she said, "What if I mixed m&m's with kisses? Or do you think the foil is going to ruin it?"

Paul wanted Cassie to leave him alone with Rosalie so he could bitch at the leech to find out why the hell Bella and Edward were hunting down murderous vampires in the town where his imprint lived, while she was still living there, and nobody bothered to call to tell the pack. He doubted that Sam knew about it or else Sam would have flown down there to meet with the Cullens, and he doubted that Jared would have allowed it too!

"What is it for?" questioned Rosalie, feeling Paul's anger rising.

"Centerpieces for the wedding."

"Do both," Rosalie suggested. "I don't know what you're going to do with them, but both sounds like it'll be nice."

"Great," smiling a little, Cassie gave Paul another glance and then said, "Thanks."

"Edward didn't call to tell us about it until they were already back home with Jacob and Renesmee," Rosalie said at once, turning to look at Paul this time. "We didn't know that Sam had a cousin that lived in Wyoming until Edward called and told us that Jacob called her. Carlisle shouted at Jacob for getting her involved, seeing as how the mountain she gave them a free ride to was the mountain being inhabited, but he explained that he didn't know she'd be working that day. He really did call her just so she could meet up with Bella and Edward for her gift."

"Why would Jacob give her a gift?" he snarled, counting all the ways to kill Jacob Black.

"I don't know," she sneered, "Ask him! She wasn't your imprint back then, mutt, so I don't understand why you're all pissy about it now."

"Because she's still Sam's cousin, and Jared's best friend, and if Jacob knew about a leech being close to her the pack should have been the one called in – not Bella and Edward!"

"Oh…" taking a step back, Rosalie looked confused. Giving him a curious look, and then glancing in the direction of where Cassie was now humming to herself while sorting through bags of chocolates, she looked back at him. "It's not the wolf that's pissed about its imprint being so close to danger, it's _you_."

Snarling at Rosalie, and then turning around to leave her behind before he punched her and ruined any possible chance to get Cassie to accept him, Paul was seething inside. His body was trembling from how pissed he was. He knew that it was still impossible for him to phase because there would have been a giant wolf in this store right now otherwise.

First he would question Jared to find out if Jared knew the truth about why Jacob wanted Cassie's number, and then he would find out why Jared hid the memory of knowing that Cassie met the newest Cullens just a year after they were married, and then he was going to call Jacob and shout at him until his throat went raw. And then he would let Sam know.

He wasn't letting Sam know because Sam was the alpha, but because as a cousin he has the right to know that his baby cousin was so close to danger.

"She's hot."

All of his murderous thoughts fell away when he heard the scornful tone in Cassie's voice. Stopping at the beginning of the aisle, and hearing Rosalie laughing from across the store, Paul looked up to find Cassie staring intensely at a package of lavender, dark purple, and white m&m's. "What?"

"Rosalie," she ended up saying, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible, "She's hot. I didn't figure you could get with somebody as hot as her."

Rosalie's laughter died away at once, and Paul could hear her low hisses from across the store, and his jaw dropped. "Me, and – are you fucking crazy?!" and then he shouted, "And what do you mean you don't think I can get somebody hot?!"

Rosalie's chuckle slowly returned. "She looks like someone with standards," Cassie shrugged, finally looking up at him with a lifted brow, "So how long were you guys together for?"

Once again there was silence on Rosalie's end until Paul could hear her very deadly, "_Correct it_!" in his ears as if she were right next to him instead of on the opposite side of the store.

"Gross!" he shuddered, giving Cassie a look of utter disgust. "She's too cold for me," when Cassie didn't look assured, he realized that all of his previous anger prevented him from sensing the loud jealousy screaming at him from the moment she left him and Rosalie alone together. It seemed too good to be true – why would she be that jealous? "And she's engaged."

"_And I don't like dogs_!"

"So, you and her never…?"

Lifting a brow when he saw the way that Cassie avoided his eyes by turning back to the candies in front of her, Paul couldn't resist teasing her, "Jealous, Uley?"

Making a loud scoffing sound, Cassie rolled her eyes for him to see it, "Bite me, Lahote."

Remaining silent until he reached her side, Paul leaned towards her ear with a smug look on his face, and he gently grazed his finger over the sensitive spot on her throat that he once marked, "I did – _twice_. But is this an invitation for a third time?"

Paul expected her to push him away with some comment about fucking off, or to even turn as red as a tomato like only she could, but instead she looked up at him with her own smug look, and said, "I hear third times the charm," and when Paul released a soft groan at the promise in the line, she chuckled and this time she did shove him away, "And I've got no reason to be jealous, Lahote – it doesn't matter who has you now, 'cause I'll always be the one who had you first!"

"_Holy shit – you lost your virginity to her_?!" growling in response to Rosalie's statement, Paul could feel the way that Cassie shivered at the sound. The scent of her arousal reached him instantly, and when he looked down at her he could see a lustful look in her eyes that had him already growing hard in his jeans. "_Fucking your imprint in the middle of a crowded store is not a smart thing to do, dog! Take her outside to your truck at least!_"

Pushing himself away from Cassie, Paul thought about taking Rosalie's advice and taking Cassie outside into his truck so he could help her out with her sudden wetness, but he knew that she had things to do today. "Hurry up and get what you need," he said huskily, not bothering to hide the way he shifted himself in his jeans.

Her giggle – he hated her fucking giggle. He hated it that day after school, he hated it that day she left, he hated it that day he saw her for the first time in six years at Jared's house, he hated it last night, and he hated it right now.

It was the fucking giggle from hell every time it left her lips.

"What the hell do you need two-hundred mason jars for?" he gawked, carrying a large amount of crates out to his truck. He could have carried the entire load himself because of the strength that came alone with the fever, but he couldn't let anybody other than the pack, the leeches, or Emily see how strong he was without raising questions and odd looks.

Carrying her own two crates, Cassie walked next to him, "Centerpieces."

"We're not having two-hundred tables at the wedding, Uley!" he cried out, "And there's only going to be a handful of guests – fifty at the most."

"Just shut up, I know what I'm doing!" she shouted back at him.

Standing at the front of the newest store they were now in, with bags in his hands, waiting for Cassie to pay for everything she just brought, Paul's nose twitched and he growled when he saw Rosalie standing next to his truck. She looked bored, and although he hated her he didn't blame her – she'd been keeping her distance since they ran into her the first time, and stalking people from afar while they ran errands was extremely boring… he used to have to take shifts to keep an eye on Bella for Jacob.

While he and Cassie left the earlier store with $200 worth of chocolates, Rosalie spoke low so that only he could hear her say that she'll watch from far to give them some privacy.

It made him hate the leech a little less.

"Oh hi!" grinned Cassie, no longer giving off jealous signals when she saw Rosalie next to the truck.

"Hey," Rosalie smiled, also noticing that Cassie was no longer jealous. Once Paul assured her that he wanted nothing to do with the blonde, and that they've never done anything in the past, it was like Cassie saw her differently. "I was just over there picking up some things for Emmett, and I saw you guys," Paul had to give it to the leech – coming up with an excuse as to why she was there, while also mentioning her fiancé to placate whatever hidden worries Cassie might still have about her…

"Who's Emmett?"

"My fiancé."

Both the wolf and the vampire heard the audible sigh of relief that no normal person would have caught, "Oh, your fiancé?"

Smiling fondly as she thought about the brutish vampire she was in love with, Rosalie nodded her head, "Yeah, my love. We've been together for what feels like a century."

Paul actually released a small laugh at the ironic truth in what he knew Cassie took as a metaphor. "Aww, that's so sweet," and as Cassie spoke about it, Paul could see a distant look in her eyes, "I hardly see people in love anymore. I mean the only ones I know are my parents, and Sam with Emily – you can literally see the love in Sam's eyes when he looks at her."

Giving Paul a side glance, Rosalie's smile went from fond to knowing, "I'm sure that you'll find that soon, Cassie."

Paul wasn't expecting the bitter snort from Cassie, and neither was Rosalie. They both looked at the scornful girl in front of them, and in that moment Paul knew that he broke her in too many ways when they were still just fifteen and impressionable. "I don't want that," she ended up shaking her head. "I wish it for everyone else, but I'm still only twenty-one and I'm still having fun. I don't wanna be tied down, or to have to answer to just _one_ person."

Rosalie's face fell, and if she wasn't a vampire she'd have paled right there. Giving Paul a worried look, she looked ready to grab him and run him out of there in case he snapped or broke down. Cassie's words had the wolf in him whimpering in pain, but he was able to ignore the wolf's pain because his own human pain was greater. He did that – he made Cassie never want to settle down. He always believed that he'd never want to settle down too until he finally imprinted, and it seemed only fit that the only person in the entire world meant for him to love was the one person that he taught to build a wall around herself. She'd never been so bitter before that day. Before he promised her that they could be friends after they gave each other something so important.

"So…" Rosalie said, still giving Paul frantic glances in case he did snap. He could sense her confusion as to why he wasn't angry at Cassie's almost guaranteed admittance of soon turning down the imprint and the mark, "How many more places do you guys have to stop at?"

"Just one."

This time Paul's heart sped up, and he snapped his head in her direction, "Just one? I thought you said we had to go to thirteen places?"

"Yeah, and we've been to twelve of them already," she chuckled. "I just have to stop at the fabric store since this place didn't have any. And then we're done. You got the stuff you needed for your house already, right?"

"Yeah," he nodded, not wanting to have to drive back to La Push just yet – in La Push he had to deal with Sam and the rest of the pack. And he wouldn't have an excuse to cling to Cassie's side, "I picked it up when you were looking at the dresses."

Sensing Paul's reluctance to have to return Cassie back home so soon, Rosalie gave him a look of annoyance before quickly plastering on a bright smile and an excited look, "Have you guys eaten anything yet? I was planning on having some lunch after my errands, and I'm already finished with everything. That's why I came out here when I saw you two."

Knowing that vampires could eat human food if they wanted to, even though it did nothing for them, Paul gave the leech a grateful look and decided to at least try to be nice to her the next time he saw her. Old habits were hard to kill, but so far she seems to be trying to actually help him. "Sure," Cassie replied, not bothering to check with Paul; not that he was about to deny an extra hour or so with her. "Where were you planning on going?"

"Well there's a diner over on the next block," Rosalie shrugged, and Paul doubted she'd ever willingly eaten in a diner before. "We could go there first, and then you guys can stop at the fabric shop afterwards since it's on the way back to La Push."

He could sense her annoyance when he chose to sit next to her instead of sitting next to Rosalie. Now that Rosalie mentioned Emmitt, Cassie officially crossed her off as a threat, and she would have preferred to have him sit next to the blonde instead. Not that Paul cared.

They all ordered burgers, fries, and drinks, and Rosalie started to ask Cassie questions about herself; questions with answers that would help him get to know her more.

Flowers – he would definitely buy the vampire flowers.

He was even willing to hug her if he wasn't afraid that she'd kill him.

"So, Cassie, what's that crow and butterfly for on your back?"

"It's a song," she smiled cheerfully. "Have you heard of the band Shinedown before?" when Rosalie shook her head, she gasped, "You should listen to them – they're amazing! I've been in love with them for as long as I can remember, and they've got this song called _Crow Chasing The Butterfly_, and it's supposed to represent death always catching up to life. You can run for as long as you want, but in the end everyone dies."

Rosalie blinked her eyes at her, but Paul frowned. Is that what the song meant? "I always took it as the past catching up to your present," he blurted out before remembering that the song was his secret pleasure that he hid even from the pack.

He would kill the blonde bitch. The smirk on her face told him that she remembered seeing the crow tattoo on his chest, and she wondered if it had anything to do with Cassie's. "You listen to Shinedown?" gawked Cassie.

Okay – maybe he'd buy Rosalie roses for her name. A dozen pink roses. Maybe the blonde knew what she was doing. "No," he shook his head, "Not really. That's the only song that I actually like from them," as Cassie now looked up at him in awe, he decided to buy _two_-dozen pink roses instead of just one, "And I always took it as the past catching up to the future. Like the things that we regret, that can't be undone, you can try to escape it for as long as you can, but-"

"-but in the end, you start to slow down from exhaustion, and everything you've been running from just topples over you," Cassie nodded, now staring up at Paul as if only seeing him for the first time. She now looked at him in the same way that he looked at her that day after school. "I like thinking of it that way too. It's more bittersweet than thinking of death catching up to your life."

"And it's easier to relate to," Paul admitted softly, still staring down at her.

With a small smile on the curls of her lips, Cassie said, "And sometimes it's not so bad."

The conversations went smoothly after the song admission, and Paul noticed how Cassie even allowed herself to relax to the point where she was slapping his shoulder in the way she always used to do to Jared when excited about something. She told them about her job at Teton Village back in Jackson Hole, and she talked about the teaching job she would start in the first week of August when school started up again.

"I'll let you guys go alone," Rosalie told Paul when Cassie ran into the bathroom before leaving the diner.

"Really?"

She nodded her head, "If it was possible to allow Sam into my head so he could see what I saw today I would let it happen. I didn't know her before she moved to Jackson, and I don't know what kind of relationship you both had back then, but I can see you both working to fix it now."

"I hated her," he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. It was like he forgot he was talking to somebody that he still considered an enemy until he decided to buy her pink roses.

"I don't think you did," Rosalie said softly, giving him a curious look. "Other than when you got pissed earlier, I didn't see the wolf come out at all today, Paul. Every look, every conversation, every stolen touch against her – it was all _you_. And it doesn't take one simple hook up in a forest to create that."

Glancing in the direction of the bathroom, Paul said, "Six years ago I beat up some kid that made her cry by saying pretty much the exact same words I said to her the day before. I went to her house to check up on her, and to give her her books 'cause the kid knocked them out of her hands, and one thing led to another."

"Was that the day you lost your virginity to her?"

"And the day I lost my mind," he chuckled, nodding his head. "It was her first time too; hell, it was her first kiss that day. I promised her that things would be different, and that we'd be friends after what happened between us. And I wanted to; I wanted to be her friend so badly. But I'm an asshole, Rosalie – you've seen how my temper gets, and how much of a dick I can be. The next morning at school I was an ass again, and I said some fucked up things. She avoided even Jared for two weeks, and then suddenly she's at his house saying goodbye 'cause she convinced her mom to take a job in Wyoming."

"Oh… so that song then?"

He nodded his head, knowing what she was asking, "For the last six years she's been haunting my mind 'cause I know that I'm the one that chased her off the rez, after fifteen years of making her life hell. And she gave me a chance to apologize. You should've seen it that day she came to say goodbye – if I asked her to stay, she would've moved in with Sam and Emily."

"Then why didn't you?"

"She didn't look back."

"I'll tell Sam what I saw, to ease his mind about leaving you guys alone together. I won't tell anyone what you told me, and I won't tell him certain things either."

"Thanks."

"She has that look, Paul."

He frowned, "What look?"

"That look that she said she sees Sam giving Emily, and her dad giving her mom – the look that she said she doesn't want. I saw you give it to her today when she wasn't paying attention."

"She most likely won't accept the imprint. We've got too much bad history between us, and no amount of loving her will make up for everything I've done to her in the past."

"And if she doesn't accept it?"

"I don't know."

Not as annoyed as he thought he'd be when Rosalie and Cassie ended up exchanging numbers because they left the diner as new friends, Paul drove Cassie down to the fabric shop to where she did her final errand. And there was no trace of a vampire anywhere near them.

"Can you stop at the cliffs?"

Giving Cassie a confused look, Paul lifted a brow, "Why?"

"Just stop there."

He was glad he stopped at the cliffs.

The second he put the truck into park, Cassie reached out and pulled him onto her. "What the hell?"

Looking proud at the way she managed to catch Paul Lahote off guard, not realizing that he was more shocked at the way he couldn't smell her arousal until she was flipping them over so that she was straddling him, Cassie yanked off his t-shirt. "I saw the crow, and wondered," she said, grinding her hips against his and trailing her finger over the tattoo. "Now I know."

Chuckling when he realized that his tattoo seemed to be turning her on now that she knew the meaning behind it, Paul decided three-dozen seemed like a good number. Bringing his hands up to her ass to hold her still against the erection straining in his cut-offs, Paul allowed her to trace the tattoo, "You have been teasing me all day, Uley."

Lifting both brows in a quick teasing motion, Cassie finally looked away from his chest and brought her lips to his in a hovering motion, "What are you going to do about it, Lahote?"

Her shirt and bra were the first two things to go, and Paul almost came right there in his shorts. The night before he hadn't really looked at her. They'd just done a quickie in the forest, and he didn't even touch her breasts. But now the very first pair of breasts that he'd ever seen were bare for him again, and dangling right in front of his face seeing as how she was still straddling him.

And they came with a piercing in each one.

Each nipple had a barbell going through it with yellow balls.

Responding with a twitch of her hips when Paul brought his mouth to her left nipple and tugged at the piercing with his teeth, Cassie brought her hands to his jeans and began to unbutton them to get him naked already. "Are you wet already?" Paul asked, releasing the nipple and beginning to tug at her jeans too.

Nodding her head, Cassie gasped as his fingers ran through her already dripping slit while she sort of squatted above him to pull her jeans and panties off completely. He noticed that she was wearing a thong again – just like their first two times. "D-Do you have protection?"

Groaning because he used the last condom from the box in the dashboard three weeks before Cassie moved back, Paul slammed his head back onto the seat. "Fuck!"

He really hated her giggle. Especially in a moment like this. Her arousal was flooding everything around him, and her scent was strong in his nose – almost like a bitch in heat. He wanted to be inside of her already, and she was fucking giggling. Smirking when he groaned as she teased him by grazing her wet cunt against the tip of his already leaking cock, Paul felt her reach down into her purse. "Never know when the mood will hit," she explained, seeing the fascination in Paul's eyes when she pulled out a box of condoms. And then bringing her mouth to his ear, she whispered, "Are you still too shy to let me help?"

"Hurry – the – fuck – up!" he growled out, trying to thrust his hips to enter her already. She was wet and ready for him, she'd been teasing him earlier in the stores, and he just found out that his soul mate had pierced nipples and kept a box of condoms in her purse. The only thing keeping him from flipping them over and entering her from the top was his fear of hurting her and breaking the truck in the process. It was just a small thing with a small bench seat. His knees were upward right now, and if the horn wasn't broken, they'd have alerted a lot of attention by now.

Looking amused by Paul's impatience, causing him to growl at her, which only had her shivering in delight, Cassie opened up a wrapper and pulled out a green condom, which had Paul's chest heaving at the memory it brought back. Instead of rolling it onto him, and then impaling him, like Paul was hoping, Cassie pushed herself back as comfortably as she could. At this point Paul's eyes were huge, and with one quick lick of his cock, she gave him an impressed look, "I've been wanting to taste you since I was seventeen and learned how to do this."

"Fuck…" grunting, and thrusting upwards when Cassie wrapped her lips around the head of his cock, Paul's eyes actually shut from the sudden warmth engulfing him. It seemed almost forbidden to have Cassie sort of on her knees in front of him with his cock in her mouth in his truck. She kept her hands on his stomach, but her head moved down at a teasingly slow pace. It was her admission of wanting to give him head since she was seventeen that had him panting though. For the past four years she actually thought about giving him head. "Fuck!" crying out, and then apologizing when his jerking movement had Cassie gagging, Paul's human side beat out the wolf's anger about how she learned this. He was too ecstatic to be pissed.

"Where?" she asked, pulling away from him long enough to ask the question. Flying his eyes open, Paul wanted to cry because he'd been so fucking close. She stared at him, expecting an answer to a question he didn't even understand, and then rolled her eyes.

"Fuck!" wishing he could find something else to say right now, Paul brought both of his hands to her head to keep her from pulling away again when she took him into her mouth once more. It didn't feel like she was planning on pulling away any time soon though when she sped up her sucking and began to twirl her tongue around his tip every time she reached it. "C-C-C – oh, fuck!" holding her head in place as his hips jerked on their own, Paul released himself into her throat. If he went flaccid he'd have gotten hard instantly once he saw her swallow it instead of spitting it out. "God… that was…"

He had no time to tell her how amazing she was because soon the condom was pulled on, and he was inside of her. Holding onto Paul's chest, Cassie rode him as if she were dancing in a club seductively. With her eyes shut tightly, Paul watched her lean her head forward while avoiding hitting the roof of the truck. Her nails were digging into his chest, and he gripped her ass tightly. Wondering if he'd forever cum early whenever with her, Paul had to bite his lip just to keep some restraint. He kept from thrusting up into her, because she seemed to be doing fine on her own with how she moved.

Her moans attracted Embry, who was hidden away behind the trees behind some boulders, and had his back facing their direction to keep from seeing anything. Paul could smell and hear him arrive a minute before, and he could also hear the warning that Sam was phased in that moment too and knew what was going on through him right now.

But he ignored Embry, and growled "Stop talking," beneath his breath so low that only Embry could hear him.

Cassie bit her lip to keep from being too loud, but it didn't work – she was a moaner, and damn if it didn't have Paul groaning in unison with her. The cliff was filled with the loud sounds of moans, groans, and cries out to god, and her nails dug into him so deeply that she drew blood. "Oh god, Lahooooote!"

Panting, Paul couldn't hold back anymore and dug his fingers into her thighs to hold onto her while beginning to thrust up into her deeply. His thrusts coupled with her hip movements had Cassie holding onto the truck's ceiling and seeing stars. "Fuck!" he cried out, "Cum Cassie, cum for me right now!"

And she did.

Thank god for that condom, because they both knew she'd be pregnant otherwise.

It was one of those moments.

Paul wanted to pull Cassie down against his chest and just hold onto her, but she seemed to have other plans. "Where the hell did you throw my bra?"

Staring up at her in disbelief when he saw the way she looked around for her clothes to start getting dressed already, Paul realized that she wasn't a cuddler. He wondered if she hated it for the same reason that he did – because of that day. "I think it went out the window."

Scowling at him, and then slapping his chest, she said, "I'm not getting it then, 'cause I think my panties are out there too."

Sighing, he pulled off the condom, and then pulled up his jeans while she lifted herself up to allow him to sit up. He caught sight of the fingerprint bruises on her thighs, and he gave her an apologetic look and began to scratch at his head, "Sorry."

Looking down at where he was staring, Cassie's eyes widened and then she looked up at him. She was sitting in the driver's seat, completely naked, while he sat on the passenger's side with the tied up condom still in his hand. "Why is it every time we do this you leave a freaking mark?!"

If she reacted like this to a hickey, scratches, and bruises, how would she feel about him biting her neck in the same fashion that Sam bit Emily… and how Jacob would mark Renesmee once she was of age? "I'm just gonna toss this, and look for your underwear…" jumping out of the truck, Paul looked around for only a few seconds before finding the lacy yellow thong and the black bra. Feeling himself begin to harden again at how damp the thong was when he picked it up, he reached into the truck and handed them to her, "I gotta take a leak. I'll be right back."

Nodding her head, as she started to slip the thong on over her legs, Cassie said, "Be careful, I think I saw a huge dog earlier."

Paling at the thought of Cassie seeing Embry in his wolf form, Paul played along with it because she couldn't know the truth until after the wedding, "Do you know how to drive standard?"

"Are you forgetting that I'm the one who taught Jared?"

Chuckling, he said, "Yeah, I did forget. Once you get dressed start the truck in case of anything."

"Sure, do you – just be careful!" she ended up shouting at his already retreating back.

"I phased back to human 'cause I was disturbed by how many ways Sam can think of to kill a person. Just stay away from any grills for a while, okay."

Glaring darkly at Embry, who was crouching behind a huge boulder, Paul tossed the condom to the ground and hissed, "Why the fuck did you stay? You should have left once you realized what was happening!"

"I wanted to," Embry said hotly, "Trust me – I didn't want to have to hide here while listening to all of that. But Sam ordered me to stay."

"Obviously I'm not going to fucking hurt her! I didn't think the spying order would carry out to even when we're doing _that_!"

"I don't think he cares."

"LAHOTE!"

Telling Embry to stay down, Paul turned back towards the direction of the truck. Cassie was sitting in the driver's seat, already completely dressed, and the truck was running, "YEAH?"

"JARED JUST TEXTED, AND ASKED WHERE WE'RE AT 'CAUSE HE WANTS TO GO CLIFF DIVING! HURRY THE HELL UP BEFORE HE GETS HERE!"

"If it was possible, I'd leave the pack…" groaned Paul, rubbing his forehead. "Does Jared know about this?"

Shaking his head, Embry said, "He hasn't phased all day. He's still sort of pissed that you imprinted on her, and he doesn't want us in his head."

"Great…" he said sarcastically. "Wait 'til we leave to call him and give him a heads up. I don't need him to come here and then get attacked with the smell. And I can't exactly tell him myself with Uley still in the truck with me."

Deciding that she was too lazy to slide over back to the passenger seat, Cassie ended up just driving Paul's truck. The only person to ever drive his truck before had been his dad, but when Cassie suggested it, he just jumped into the passenger seat and leaned back like it was nothing. Turning on the radio to listen to music, something that neither of them did all day, Paul kept looking down at her hand every time she would shift gears.

How would her hand feel on his cock?

_Inbox: Jared_

_Is it official?_

Sort of glad that Cassie was the one driving so he could text without worrying about her seeing the screen, Paul knew what the text message from Jared meant.

_Sent: Jared_

_No. It was just a random moment._

_Inbox: Jared_

_I'm at the house with Sam right now. I'm staying._

_Sent: Jared_

_Alright. I'll see you there._

Paul just put his phone back into the front pocket of his cut-offs, and then a weird sound of grinding gears began to play from Cassie's phone. Pulling it out she checked it, and then chuckled and handed her phone to him, "Jared just texted that he's at the house. Can you just text him back and let him know we're about ten minutes away?"

"Sure."

_Inbox: Jared_

_I'm at the house since no one wants to go to the cliffs. Are you almost back?_

_Sent: Jared_

_Yeah, be there in 10 mins._

Neither Paul nor the wolf in him got pissed when Cassie jumped onto Jared as soon as she saw him. Acting like a kid who was excited to see their parents again after a long day at school or something like that, Cassie jumped out of Paul's truck and then ran across the yard just to jump onto him with a loud roaring sound as if she were a dinosaur. Chuckling when he heard the way that Jared laughed and wrapped his arms around her, Paul slammed the door shut and gave Jared a nod of his head to let him know that it was okay when he got a questioning look.

Jared was Cassie's best friend, but he also knew how territorial wolves got with their imprints. Jacob actually attacked Sam for picking Renesmee up one day when she wanted to sit on his shoulders. If Paul didn't like it, Jared had enough sense to stop the way he and Cassie touched each other and were always constantly hugging or sitting on each other.

Not noticing the way that Paul and Jared both stared at each other uncomfortably when Jared carried her back to the truck, Cassie jumped out of his arms and then said, "Since you're here you can help us carry everything. Take it all into my room."

"Yes, Ma'am!" mocked Jared, giving her a salute.

Slapping his arm, she was the one who opened the tailgate of the truck and then reached in to start pulling things out already. "Where's Sam? I see his truck, but he's not out here helping us."

"He went out for a run."

Waiting until Cassie was already in the house, Paul scratched his forehead, "Listen, man, about-"

"It's cool," Jared shrugged, cutting him off. "I know that you didn't choose her, Paul. It just sucks that you both lied to me all these years, and that neither of you seemed to trust me enough to tell me about what happened that day. But all day I was thinking about it, and I think I understand it now – why you got up and ran to the door the day that she left, and why you stood there for three hours until we pulled you away. And then I remembered how you reacted when you saw her crying that day. And now I sorta get why she avoided even me after that day, and why she kept looking at you in the house the day she left. It's weird as fuck, but I'm okay with it now. But can you just not fuck her at the cliff anymore, or in the forest – I kind of like those places without having to smell her."

Chuckling, Paul knew that that was Jared's way of apologizing, and he pulled him into a hug, "Would you believe me if I told you that _she_ was the one who told me to drive out onto the cliffs and then she pounced on me? I was being good all day."

"Actually," Jared snorted, pulling away from the hug, and grabbing things from the truck's bed, "With the shit that she used to tell me when we'd talk, I do believe it."

"What shit?" Paul asked, grabbing his own things, and following after him. They could both already hear the shower running with Cassie humming in it, and they realized that she was leaving them with everything. "No, seriously man, what shit did she used to tell you?"

It wasn't until he was at home later that night that Paul realized Jared said he understood why he stood at that door for three hours after the Uleys left, and how he remembered how he reacted to seeing Cassie's tears. And what did he mean he now got why Cassie avoided him and then kept staring at Paul that day?

What the hell was Jared talking about?

What the hell did Rosalie mean earlier when she brought up his human side too?

…

Shutting the door while the delivery man was leaving, Emmett turned around with a look of confusion on his face, and his arms full, "BABE, WHY THE HELL DID PAUL SEND YOU THREE-DOZEN PINK ROSES?!"


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

The wedding was just one day away, and Paul felt more nervous than Sam did. The day after the wedding was the day he would confront Cassie with everything. They had one more tryst after the incident in the truck, and this one was brought on by Paul when he stopped at the house to see if she needed help with the centerpieces and could hear her soft little moans coming from her room.

Those soft little moans had the hairs on the back of his neck standing on edge, and he almost broke down her room door to kill the bastard his imprint was in there with. It wasn't until Cassie was screaming in fear at the sudden intrusion, and pulling the blanket over herself that he realized she was home alone and the sounds were caused by herself.

Once his heart calmed down because his imprint was alright, and not with someone else, Paul realized that he walked in on her fingering herself. Her pale flesh was flushed, and she looked flustered, and it looked like she wanted to cry from embarrassment. She started to shout at him to get the hell out, but instead he quickly walked up to her bed and pulled her up into a rough kiss as his fingers instantly replaced hers.

Poor Jared was the one sent by Sam to keep an eye on the two of them, and he had to sit outside of the house for an hour while listening to the girl he used to have a crush on get thoroughly fucked into a nap by his best friend.

In that session Paul's fingers were imprinted into her ass as he held her tightly.

But other than that day she stayed away from him. He came over every day when he wasn't at work, and he would be at Jared's house when she came over, and he made sure to be close to her long enough to satisfy the wolf's need to be with his imprint, but he noticed that she did her best to avoid him.

When he came over to the house, she would lock herself up in the room with the excuse of doing the centerpieces, and when he would show up at Jared's she would leave a few minutes later.

One night he was so desperate to be near her that he slept at the house in the living room on the couch. Sam was pissed, but Emily reminded him of the days when he used to sleep in her yard when she told him to go away and leave her alone – it felt like Cassie was rejecting the imprint, and Paul was slowly breaking.

What worried him though was how the wolf was slowly becoming more silent as well. In just a few days the wolf had gone softer. And he still couldn't phase.

"EMBRY, GET SAM! CASSIE'S FIGHTING!"

Hearing the way that Quil shouted at Embry to get Sam because Cassie was fighting, Paul called on his wolf's speed while running off towards the gas station. He and Embry just got off of work, and Jared told them both to meet him, Quil, and Cassie at the gas station and he'd give them both a ride home since neither of them drove into work in the morning. "WHAT THE HELL'S GOING ON?!" he shouted, reaching a small formed circle, and pushing his way through.

"I was pumping the gas, and Nikki just came up and started bitching at her, and then she pushed her!" Jared said frantically.

Paul could see that Jared wanted to jump in and pull Cassie out, but as he turned his attention to the fight his eyes widened in shock. With her hair loose and a mess, Cassie had her slippers off, her shirt rolled up and doubled over her chest, and the stance she stood in looked like one of someone who'd gotten into lots of fights in their life – she stood just like him. Recognizing the other girl as one of the ones that used to tell Cassie to go look for her birth parents when they were younger, Paul also saw that she was one of the ones he fucked a while back. She didn't seem to like the way it was just a one-time thing.

Both girls were panting, and it was obvious that the other one took more hits to the face by the way her mouth was bleeding and her eye was black. Cassie had a few scratches on her neck, and her right hand had bleeding knuckles, but that was her only damage.

Paul was proud of her.

"Nobody wanted you here then, and nobody wants you here now you, stupid white bitch!" the girl shouted at Cassie, drawing in more people. Sam was running towards them with Embry already. "All you've done since you got here is spread your fucking legs to all of our guys!"

"Funny, Nikki, because unless you're counting all the white guys in Forks as all of _your_ guys, I haven't touched anyone in fucking La Push other than just the one. And if you want him you can fucking have him!"

"I already did!" the girl sneered, causing Paul to stare at her in disgust. What the fuck was he thinking when he touched her? "How's it feel to have sloppy seconds?"

"I don't know," Cassie sneered back, not taking another step closer or taking another step back. Sam was standing by Paul's side now, and the look that he gave him told him that Sam wouldn't get involved – it was his imprint fighting, and they seemed to be fighting over him. Paul was the one who had to step in if anything, "You tell me, 'cause I know for damn sure that you weren't the first bitch he fucked," Paul smirked, "And if I'm the one fucking him now you sure as hell weren't the last," his smirk deepened, and his friends all rolled their eyes. It seemed like Cassie didn't realize that Paul, Sam, and the others were all standing right there. "How many other bitches did he have before you? 'Cause from what I've been hearing he sort of gets around."

Trying not to feel offended at the way that Cassie made him sound like a man-whore, even though he knew it was true, Paul realized why Jared didn't pull her away either – even he knew that this was Paul's problem.

"HE'S MINE!" the other girl screeched, lunging forward to attack Cassie.

Before Paul could even react at the blatant lie, and shout that he'd rather live with the Cullens for the rest of his life than ever be with her, Cassie brought up a fist and connected it to the other girl's stomach. Then reaching out she grabbed her and flew her to the ground, "I'm not fighting for a fucking guy, you stupid dumb bitch! If you want him, you can have him!"

It was in the way that his imprint gave him up so easily that had Paul growling, and it was the way that he growled that had both girls looking up at him. The bleeding girl on the ground whimpered, and Cassie only gave him an annoyed look, "You've been nothing but trouble from the day I met you, Lahote!" she shouted at him.

"You can't talk to Paul like that, white bitch!"

"Learn a new word!" screeched Cassie, looking down at the girl on the ground. And then walking away from her, she avoided looking in Paul's direction.

"Hey!" now the wolf was awakening. Reaching out to grab her hand, Paul pulled Cassie against him despite her protests and he shut her up by bringing her mouth to his. Slowly tracing the tight line between her lips with the tip of his tongue until she opened them for him, Paul claimed her mouth. With Sam there, and Jared, and the others, and with all the other random witnesses of people that lived on the rez, Paul claimed Cassie's mouth until her body sank against his. With his hands on her face, and her hands resting against his chest, Paul finally pulled away so they could both breathe.

Panting even heavier now than she did earlier, Cassie looked more pissed now too. "You should probably help your girlfriend out seeing as how she's bleeding!" she hissed.

Confused as to why Cassie was pissed with him now, and how she managed to just walk away from a kiss like that, Paul's growl was deep enough to have everyone there move away from him. Turning burning eyes onto the girl on the ground, Paul said, "I – am – _hers_!" the girl whimpered and nodded her head quickly, still lying there. Then looking up at Sam, he said, "Now."

"Now," Sam nodded in agreement, knowing what Paul meant.

"ULEY!" he shouted, running in the direction that she stormed off too. He could hear Sam asking Jared what the hell happened, but he ignored everything around him; focusing on just getting Cassie.

Groaning when she heard him behind her, Cassie turned around. Her face was red, and Paul could sense nothing but pure anger from her, "_What, _Lahote?!"

"What the fuck was that?" he shouted at her, moving closer towards her.

"That was _me_ getting attacked just like before! Only now instead of just being a white bitch, I'm also a slut that's fucking everybody here! And apparently your little fan club of previous conquests is getting tired of seeing your fingerprints on my thighs or my nail indentions on your chest or shoulders. It's one thing to have to explain to my cousin, and _Jared_, about what happened in the forest that night, but I don't have to explain myself to anyone else – least of all the girls that like to think you belong to them!"

"I don't give a fuck about that, or what they think!" he growled. He could hear Sam's voice reaching him, warning him to keep calm, "What the hell was that when you told her she could have me?!"

Opening her mouth for a split second, Cassie stared at him with an incredulous look, "I refuse to fight for a fucking guy, Lahote; especially a guy like you!"

"What the fuck does _that_ mean?!" he shouted, having to take a step back so he could fly his arms up into the air without accidentally hitting her, "A guy like – a guy like _me_?!"

"The kind of asshole that doesn't even remember the name of the girl he fucked just an hour before!" she said challengingly, daring him to deny what she was saying. "The kind of guy that's probably been in _maybe _one actual relationship that lasted for a week or two, the kind of guy that walks around shirtless 'cause he knows he's hot," at least she thought he was hot, "The kind of guy that whispers sweet nothings into the ears of innocent girls with no intent on keeping any of his promises, the kind of guy that has more emotion when he's fucking than any other time of the day, the kind of guy that goes around bragging to all of his friends about every bitch he'd been with – I could do this all day, Lahote…"

"I remember _your_ name!" he cried out, running his hands through his hair now. The pack stayed a safe distance away, but they were watching closely and listening in case he found a way to phase again during this argument. And they were all stunned with what they were hearing; with what they were seeing. "I've always remembered _your_ name! Your name, your face, your stupid fucking scarlet hair, the golden blonde it used to be before you dyed it, that annoying little beauty mark right on your forehead that I keep thinking is dirt, the way your eyes turn from rain to an ocean blue when you're turned on, the way you cleaned my hand for me with alcohol and a washcloth when it was scraped up – I could do this all day too, Uley. And I've never bragged to my friends about us – not fucking _once_! For six years I kept _that_ promise to you, and even _now_ I still don't brag about you to them! They asked me about that night in the forest, and I didn't tell them anything!"

Snorting, she shook her head at him with a look of disbelief. "Well good on you, for knowing how to honor at least one thing you said that day! And as for _my_ _name_, you only remember it when we're fucking!"

Standing there with a dumbfounded look on his face, Paul felt his chest tightening as she walked away. The pain was horrible, and he could feel the human pain mixing in with the pain of a wolf being rejected by its imprint, and then he heard Sam telling him to go after her. The pack remained where they were, but it was in the way that Paul shouted everything he remembered about Cassie, and in the way that they could see his reaction to her walking away once more, that Sam gave him a worried look and told him to run after her.

And then he ordered the others to stay away from the two of them.

They no longer had to be watched.

"Put me down, Lahote!"

Picking Cassie up, and situating her over his shoulder, Paul walked all the way to his house with her banging her hands on his back to be released. She was punching him, slapping him, and she even pinched him, but he refused to put her down until they reached his house. Seeing that his dad was gone, probably called by Sam to be told what was happening, Paul dropped her onto his bed.

"_Sit down_!" he said hoarsely, stopping her from jumping off the bed and running away. "Just sit down, and listen to me! I – am – _yours_!"

"Hah!" scoffing loudly, Cassie remained seated but brought her arms up to roll up her hair, "Just 'cause we fucked a few times doesn't make you mine, Lahote."

Taking in a deep breath, he said, "I'm going to get some stuff to clean your hand. Just stay, Uley. Just stay for now."

"I told you that day you drove me into Forks," she said, giving him a tired look, "I refuse to fight over a guy. I let that Star Valley bitch have my very first boyfriend, who I thought I was in love with, and I've lost others in that way too. And they were guys that liked me _before_ I took my clothes off for them. I won't fight for you, Lahote; I have no reason to."

"Just wait."

Taking deep breaths when he walked to the bathroom to look for the bottle of alcohol, Neosporin, and a washcloth, Paul practiced how to explain the situation to Cassie. She refused to fight for him because she believed that one day their trysts would end, and he had to convince her to believe him when he said that he only had eyes for her – he didn't want it to come to an end at all!

Relieved to see that she was still sitting on the edge of his bed, Paul knelt down between her legs as she did for him six years before. It seemed like an omen at how familiar this all seemed. They were both silent as he cleaned off her hand, stunned to see that her hands weren't bruised or broken from hitting him, and she even allowed him to clean the scratches on her neck.

With the items placed up on his dresser, Paul looked down at her and he could feel the wolf growling within. "You're mine," he said simply. She snorted, and he growled; causing her to shiver as he always did with that sound. But this time it was a possessive growl. "You are mine, Uley. I know that your name is Cassie, and I can say it whenever I want to, but every time I try to Casper wants to come out as an old habit. And you still call me Lahote. And I like calling you Uley, because I'm the only one that does! But I know your name very well! And you are _mine_!"

"No," she shook her head, "I'm not. We're not a couple, Lahote; we're not anything. We're not even friends."

Growling louder this time, and kneeling down between her legs once more, Paul looked into her eyes so that she could see how serious he was being, "You – are – mine! And I would fight for you. I would fight every fucking guy on this rez for you if I had to, and I would go into Forks and fight all those bastards too! You belong to me!"

"I don't belong to-"

Cutting her off with a possessive kiss, Paul pulled away when he felt her resisting it. "And you may not feel it yet, but I am _yours_! All those others girls are faceless to me. I only see _you_. I belong to you!"

"I don't want-"

Again, he cut her off with a possessive kiss, only pulling away when she began to resist it. "When those other girls, those stupid fucking girls, come after you I want you to shout at them that I belong to _you_! Do you have any idea how fucking pissed I am right now at what I saw? I would have beat a guy into a fucking pulp, and then I'd have grabbed you and made it known how much you belong to me in front of _everybody_! That's what I want you to do – I want you to make it known that I'm _yours_, and that nobody else can have me!"

Her eyes were blank, and Paul could sense the familiarity of her arousal flooding his nostrils with his possessiveness, but he could also sense her fear. He was scaring her right now, and it was her fear that made him move away from between her legs. Sitting on the floor, and leaning against his bedroom door with his arms on his knees, Paul stared back at her. His chest was heaving, and he was attempting to do the breathing technique. "I don't want you."

The wolf cowered within him, but Cassie's arousal was so strong that it was also telling him to just take her and to mark her. They had such a wonderful physical connection, and the cowering wolf was reminding him of that; trying to get him to just claim her already, and then worry about informing her afterwards.

But it was in the way that Cassie spoke so coldly that allowed Paul to isolate the wolf; silencing it once more.

Cassie wasn't rejecting the wolf – she was rejecting _him_.

"I'll wait," he said finally, leaning his head back against the door and staring across at her. He didn't want to corner her with information about the imprint, and then force her into a relationship with him until she finally learned to love him back after a while. He didn't want to be like Sam and Emily. "I'll wait, Uley," he would convince her that he was changed now until she learned to fall in love with him as a person. He would tell her about the imprint whenever that day came. She hated his human side, and he'd be damned if she fell in love with the wolf first. He didn't want to force her into a lifelong relationship because of something he couldn't control.

"You'll wait forever," she told him coldly, also staring back at him. But whereas his eyes were lightened hers were darkened. "I thought it was safe to keep fucking you 'cause you agree with me that it's pointless to only stick to one person. You were my one exception, but I see now that it was a mistake. You're supposed to hate me, Lahote – that's what makes this easy, simple, and fun."

"I don't hate you," he chuckled. Shaking his head, he thought back to what Rosalie told him in Forks that day, and he said, "I don't think I ever hated you."

She looked stunned by his admission, and even more so stunned by how calm he was when he said it. And when she softly asked, "Did the guys put you up to this?" he frowned in confusion. "I know Sam's still pissed about the forest, and I know that Jared came over that day in my room, so did they put you up to this?" she asked him. On the surface she looked calm, and her voice even remained soft and low. She'd gotten so good at hiding herself that Paul only knew how afraid and nervous she was because of his sensitiveness to senses.

"No," he shook his head. "It's none of their fucking business what happens between us."

"This is a really fucked up thing to do!" she ended up hissing at him. "I've seen that you changed, and that you're not the same fifteen-year-old asshole you used to be before, but I didn't think you'd resort to this. To lie about never hating me before?! What sort of game are you playing at? You already got in my fucking pants, so what are you trying to do?"

The fear and nerves became overwhelmed with one emotion so strong that Paul actually fucking whimpered from how much it overpowered him. "What are you talking about?" he asked, wondering why the hell she felt betrayed in this very moment. He used to pick on her, he used to call her fucked up names, he used to be an asshole, he used to hate her (probably), and he took her virginity and then chased her out of the state by breaking his promise to change, but he'd never done anything to actually betray her. She felt so broken as if she'd been betrayed by a friend, and Paul knew that it wasn't meant for him. "What do you mean what game am I playing? This isn't a fucking game, Uley."

"Is this because of Jared? What did he tell you?" when Paul's face fell it seemed to give Cassie the answer she'd been fearing, but it only deepened his confusion.

"What the hell does Jared have to do with this?"

Jumping off of the bed, and glancing at the window as if she'd climb out of it if she had to, since he was sitting against the door, Cassie glared at him darkly. The fear was growing stronger now, "Move out of my way, Lahote."

"What the hell are you talking about? What the hell does Jared have to do with any of this?"

"Have I been kidnapped?" she questioned in a bratty tone, causing him to chuckle when she brought her arms up over her chest.

"No," shaking his head, and standing up, Paul even opened the door for her and stepped to the side. "Are you gonna tell me what Jared has to do with this?"

"It's done, Lahote. Whatever it was that we had – it's done."

Cassie's scent was still there, and he could hear her taking in a deep breath once she stepped outside of his house. But his anger got the best of him, and he knew that Cassie could hear the loud scream he released. And three seconds later he could hear her squeak in fear when he picked up his dresser and threw it against the closet door. His closet was now door-less, and his clothes was scattered along the room mixed with splinters of broken wood.

Waiting half an hour before hunting down Jared, thinking that it was enough time to give him to take out his frustrations on a tree behind his house instead of on his supposed-to-be-best-friend, Paul found the intoxicating scent of his imprint already at Jared's house. He could hear Jared asking her what she was doing there. Jared could smell him, and hear him, approaching, and there was a soft whisper for him to remain hidden outside so that Cassie couldn't see him.

Doing as Jared said, because he suspected this was how he'd get his answers, and because he knew Cassie didn't want to see him right now, Paul walked around the house and stood in the back. "_What did you do, Jared?!_" Paul could hear the way Cassie was trying her best not to scream.

"_What are you talking about, Cass?_"

"_I just came from Lahote's house, and he's fucking talking about me belonging to him and shit – and him belonging to me!_"

"She doesn't know about the imprint, or that the legends are true," Paul said at once, "Don't mention it."

"_Okay, so Paul likes you now? Why are you freaking out about it?_"

"_Lahote doesn't like anybody!_" she hissed in annoyance. Paul nodded in agreement – that was true before she opened her eyes against that damn tree. "_And he said something about never hating me before._"

"_Oh,_" hearing Jared's breath hitch, and turning red because that was sort of personal information about not hating her before, Paul began to snarl when he heard Jared quickly say, "_Trust me, Cass, you don't want to talk about this right now._"

"_Yeah, I do. You were my friend, Jared – my only friend, and I trusted you with things that I didn't even trust Sam with. When I told you that I liked Lahote I didn't think you'd tell him. So, what was it – that day; was it all a big fucking joke?!_"

"_Fuck…_"

Widening his eyes, Paul ended up sitting on a rusted chair against the back of the house with his head in his hands. "Shit!"

Sighing, Jared ran his hands through his hair in frustration. Paul knew now why Jared made sure to hide secrets from day one – they both entered the pack already protecting the same girl from being truly discovered. "_I didn't tell Paul anything, Cass!_" Jared said calmly.

Cassie wasn't buying it, and Paul didn't blame her. Not when he heard her shout "_Three days after I told you that I liked him, and I asked you why he was such an ass to me when the others were cool with me, he came to my house claiming to bring my books to me. I thought it was nice, but I was suspicious 'cause since when the hell was Paul Lahote ever nice to me? Tell me that you didn't tell him anything, Jared – TELL ME THAT YOU DIDN'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!_" Jared remained silent, and pain shot through Paul's chest when Cassie released a strained sob. "_I trusted you so much, Jared. And I was just a big fucking joke to you too, wasn't I? So, what was it – you were my friend when I was around, but you were in on the dares behind my back? Was it all just some big fucking joke to all of you back then? How much did Lahote win that day? I know that a kiss was twenty, but how much did my virginity cost?_" her voice was so cold and so empty, and Paul could hear the way her heart slowed to a frightening pace.

Licking his lips, Paul said, "You didn't even know about the dares," and it was something that nobody really noticed in the memory because they were all too focused on what the two did that day, and then hid for six years.

"_No, I didn't…_" Jared's snarl was low, and Paul could sense his anger. He jumped up now in case Jared phased accidentally. "_Cass, I don't know what the hell you're talking about,_" Jared's guilt flooded Paul, because now he was lying since he saw the vivid memory of that day, "_What fucking dares?_"

It seemed like Cassie was deaf to Jared's protests. "_So, what – you told him that I liked him and then you guys got in on the dares and bets 'cause you were both so sure that I'd give it up to him?_"

"_Cass, please, just stop talking right now! I promise you, I didn't tell him anything! I don't know what you're talking about!_"

"_So, you guys had Larry attack me after school, and you made Lahote come to my rescue to earn my trust? And then you guys planned on him showing some real fucking emotions for the first time in fifteen years? How many of those kisses did he get paid for? Was it double for being my first kiss? Did he leave my house and go to yours and laugh with the rest of you about how easy I was?_"

"_Cass…_"

"_I'm glad I moved now. I regret ever coming back to this fucking place! You know what, Jared – fuck all of you, and fuck this place!_"

"_I LIKED _YOU_ BACK THEN!_" Paul's eyes widened when he heard the throaty growl in Jared's screaming voice. Embry and Seth both came running from the forest to the back of the house, and they were both staring wide-eyed at Paul too. "I_ LIKED _YOU_, CASSIE!_"

Cassie's voice dropped, "_What_?"

"I _was your friend_!" Jared shouted at her, no longer trying to keep quiet anymore. If Cassie was going to accuse him of betraying her, he was going to admit his past feelings to keep his friendship. "_I was the one that always defended you against everyone, Cassie, and I was the one who invited you out to places. I've never called you out your name before, and I always made sure that you were okay. Why do you think I showed up at your fucking house randomly that day? I went there to tell you how I felt, and to ask you out. But when I got there you were freaking out, and you pulled me into your room and then you started to talk about how confused you were_."

Paul didn't even get pissed when he heard Jared's admission. He felt like an intruder right now, invading in something too personal that he shouldn't be a part of, and he knew that Embry and Seth both felt the same as well. They all just stood there silently, in shock. They all knew that Jared liked Cassie, but they didn't know he planned on asking her out… or that she told him she liked Paul. "_This isn't funny, Jared._"

"_It's not supposed to be!_" he snorted. The squeak of the bed told the three outside that Jared just threw himself down onto it. "_I was pissed that night, Cass. I had to listen for three fucking hours as you talked about how you liked the rez's asshole,_" there was something else in his voice; something strange, and almost pleading like, _"He's never done a single nice thing to you before, and there were so many fucking nights that I would go to your house and you'd be crying in your room because of something else that he did to you. Or you would call me crying, or we'd both ditch school 'cause you'd be crying – and most of those times were because of him. And I just couldn't understand why you actually liked him… when I was right there. So no, Cassie, I didn't tell Paul what you told me because I thought you were a fucking idiot!_" and then Jared snorted, "_Even when you started fucking him since you got back I didn't tell him anything._"

The three outside all held their breaths, and Paul could hear the ragged breathing coming from Jared, and he sat back down. Cassie was quiet for five minutes before she realized that Jared was being serious. "_But you said that – why didn't you tell me anything about _that_?_"

"_You told me that you liked my best friend, and then curled up in my arms and told me I was an amazing brother, then thanked me for listening to you._"

"_I didn't – I'm sorry._"

"_So, you lost it to Paul that day after school then?_"

"_Shit…_" it took only seven steps until the bed squeaked. Cassie was speaking softly now. "_He promised me that day that he wouldn't tell anyone; that he wasn't the kind of guy to go around bragging. And all these years you'd talk about him, and I was always waiting for the moment you'd ask me about it. He – he told me that he didn't say anything about it, but after the fight he sort of kidnapped me._"

"I didn't kidnap her."

"_He cleaned up my hand, just like I cleaned his six years ago. And then he started shouting at me for not fighting for him. He said how he'd fight for me, and that he was pissed that I didn't make it known he was mine. And then he told me that he didn't hate me back then. You don't understand, Jared, that day…_"

Cassie stopped talking suddenly, and Jared sighed, and when he spoke next Paul knew it was just for his benefit. Maybe he'd buy him roses too. But Jared was more special than Rosalie – he'd go out on red roses. "_Then tell me, Cass. Look, I don't like what you and Paul have been doing, but you're both adults and you've both been doing it for a while now. Think of it like any of our other conversations – any of your other guys._"

"_But you just-_"

"_You're still my best friend,_" he ended up chuckling, "_And he's still an asshole, but he's also my other best friend. And I promise you that he hasn't _said_ anything about you guys. And I overheard Seth asking him about the forest one night, and he told him to fuck off. He hasn't told us anything. The only reason we know about those times is 'cause Sam caught you guys walking home that night, and then I came over to see if you wanted to hang out that one day._"

"_I'm so fucking confused right now._"

"_It's just like any other conversation, Cass._"

"Except now I'm outside, listening to it," snorted Paul, shaking his head.

"_There was this dare going around the school – bets. And they involved me,_" Cassie said hesitantly. "_I've been approached a few times by seniors wanting to take me out on dates, but I was always suspicious of them so I said no. And then one day Jacob's sisters approached me and warned me that they heard some girls in their class talking to some guys about how a kiss from me was $20. Rachel said she'd tell Jacob, but Rebecca was more afraid about what you'd do if you found out, so I convinced them both not to say anything; a week later though I started getting asked out by the juniors and sophomores. And some kid that used to hang around with Seth once in a while, a fucking freshman, asked me if I'd be his first kiss._"

"I'll find out who," Seth snarled at once, pissed that one of his own supposed friends did that.

"The twins should've told us that there were seniors making bets and dares on her!" snapped Embry.

Paul hung his head in shame, but then shook it, "I got them to stop for her last two weeks there at least…"

Jared heard Paul's statement, and they all heard him say in a low voice, "_Did Paul know about it?_"

"_He told me he didn't._"

"_And you believed him?_"

"I didn't fucking know until she told me that day, Jared!" Paul growled, pissed with the accusatory tone in his own best friend's voice. "I would have said something to you if I did!"

"_That day I did._"

"_What the fuck happened to you, Cass? You never used to let him get into your head. All those times he made you cry, and you still had hopes of him one day noticing you. And now that he notices you, you're questioning even me?_"

"_I got asked out that day too. It happened every day for a few months, but there was already a lot of shit just happening. And then when Larry went for me after school, I freaked out when I saw Lahote jump in front of me and then push him. I thought you told him about my crush, and I ran home scared. I've seen _you_ get into lots of fights defending me before, but he always just laughed and then walked away saying how you were stupid to fight for me. So, I thought he was doing it just 'cause he was gonna tease me about my crush._"

Paul tensed as the genuine fear and hurt in her eyes made sense to him after six years. And he felt his chest tighten as he said, "She's right – I would have. I never would have let her live it down if I knew she liked me," at least until that day. After that day he felt a similar need to protect her like Jared always did. He even found the person who started the dares and beat the shit out of them without his friends finding out. The dares quickly stopped after that.

"_Did you really think I'd betray you like that?_"

Scoffing loudly, Cassie said, "_You got drunk with them one night and told Jacob about that weird dream I had of him. And you guys were always drinking in those days, Jared. I didn't think you did it purposely, but I thought you told him one night when you guys were drunk._"

"_Well I didn't!_"

"_Shut up about it already, and just listen,_" the three outside barely even chuckled when they heard her snap at Jared. "_When I got home, I started to cry. Not just because of what Larry said, or even about Lahote finding out the truth; I just sort of broke down with everything happening all at once. And then I heard Lahote knocking on the door and calling my name. I prepared myself for whatever shit he was gonna throw at me, but he didn't even sneer at me. He just showed me my books and said he wanted to see how I was doing. I let him inside, and then I got some stuff to clean up his hand when I saw how bruised and scraped up it was. I kept waiting for him to say something stupid, but when I told him that Larry only said things that he always says to me too he mentioned the tears._"

"_Yeah, he saw you crying before we did,_" Jared admitted in slight annoyance. Paul knew that everything Cassie was going to say would be hard for him to hear – especially when he still had hopes of them being together in those days. "_When we asked him about it, he said he didn't like seeing you crying._"

"_Yeah, he told me that too. I admitted that just 'cause he didn't see them didn't mean they weren't there, and then I sort of vented about that day, and then when I got up and thanked him again he stood up but didn't leave. He asked about us moving, and then when I said that if it did happen, I'd really miss you he just kissed me. I wasn't expecting it, and it caught me off guard, and I didn't know what to do._"

"_Fucking asshole…_"

Paul could sense how quickly uncomfortable his imprint came, and he knew that Jared could sense it too. "_S-So he knew how you – well, that you liked me?_"

There was silence, and then, "_Yeah, they all knew. I told them during the summer before we entered school that year._"

"_Do you think that's why he kept that promise then?_" she asked awkwardly, "_Because he didn't want you to find out he's a shitty best friend?_"

Snorting, Paul said, "Everyone knows I'm a shit friend anyways. I was planning on bragging to you, but the next thing I knew I was suddenly feeling bad for her and I decided that I at least owe her that much."

"_I'd expect something like that from Paul. I think he kept it a secret 'cause he felt like shit for how he treated you._"

"Thanks man."

"_If I knew, Jared, I wouldn't have done what I did. I wouldn't have allowed my stupid little girl crush to take over. I just – fuck, I don't know. He kissed me, and it was like my head got dizzy. I never wanted it to stop. But then I felt him smirking against me, and I realized what was happening… and with who. So, I pushed him away, and then I shouted at him. I was crying at that point._"

"_You thought he was taking advantage of the crush_?"

"_I didn't even think about that,_" she admitted with a chuckle, "_I thought he was taking on the dare. I asked him why he kissed me, and when he shrugged that he didn't know I got hurt. I knew then that it was the dare, so I kicked him out of the house without giving him a chance to explain himself. I wanted to call you, but I was embarrassed, so I went into my room to go to sleep instead. He came in a minute later and quickly explained to me that he didn't know about the dare 'cause everyone on the rez knew you looked out for me, and everyone knew that if any of your friends found out about it they'd tell you, and they'd all be fucked._"

"Fuck yeah we would!" hissed both Embry and Seth.

Paul nodded in agreement, "I told her that day that even I would've said something 'cause that's fucked up."

"_Lahote even said that he'd say something to you if he knew about it,_" Jared snickered because he just heard Paul say the same thing, "_And I believed him right then 'cause of his eyes. He seemed so genuine, and I believed him. So, then I asked him why he kissed me if he wasn't dared to. And I swear my heart stopped when he said he wanted to._"

"I did."

"_Did you at least punch him?_"

"_I thanked him,_" Paul chuckled at the memory, and they could hear the bed squeak as both Jared and Cassie laid down on their backs to stare up at the ceiling. "_And can you believe what he said when I told him that nobody wants to kiss me unless they're paid to 'cause of how ugly I was?_"

"_That he didn't think you were ugly?_" Cassie gasped, although neither one outside could know if it was of shock or nerves that perhaps Jared did know about that day, and Jared laughed a little, "_He never said you were ugly, Cass. In all his years of tormenting you, he not once ever called you ugly or hideous. And whenever everyone else did he always just shook his head and walked away – Paul never thought you were ugly, despite how he felt about you back then._"

"_That's what he said!_" she cried out in shock. "_I hoped he was telling the truth back then, but I was in too much shock to really care if it was a lie. All I knew was what the rez's hottest guy didn't think I was ugly!_"

Smirking proudly at the fact that at fifteen Cassie Uley considered him to be the hottest guy on the rez, Paul's smirk only deepened when Jared groaned from inside, "_I didn't agree with you six years ago, and I don't agree with you now,_" there was something about his tone that had Paul wondering what he was hiding.

"_Lahote's a prick, Jared, but I can't deny that he's still the hottest guy on the rez. And unlike all those other fucking bitches that he ran through I can say I've had him more than just once._"

"_Gross… please finish talking about the actual time you lost your virginity, to my best friend, instead of the obvious lie of a bullshit story you told me about when we were seventeen._"

Snickering, Cassie sighed, _"I admitted to him that I liked the kiss, and the next thing I knew we were both on the bed and making out. He was slow and gentle with me, 'cause I obviously didn't know what to do, and I was so nervous… but at the same time I was just really excited 'cause I finally had his attention. And we were alone without you – Lahote came to see me without you there, and I don't know… I just felt special. It was nice to feel special for a moment. And my hands moved up to his chest, and when I pulled away to apologize he had that fucking smirk on his face – the one that I told you had me always biting my lip to keep from whimpering in front of him – and he pulled my hands back onto his chest and told me he liked it._"

"Smooth, Paul."

"_I still don't get what you see in it_."

Cassie said, "_Damn, if it isn't that same fucking smirk that usually has me screaming his name these days,_" and Paul could smell her arousal once more. Just thinking about his smirk had her wet in an instant, and he resisted the urge to storm into the house and claim her right there in Jared's bedroom. Jared groaned at the scent too, and the other two were snickering. "_It was that smirk on his face that kept me in place when he laid us down. I could feel him hesitate, as if worried about pushing it too far, but I was just too happy to be making out with Paul Lahote that I didn't care. And then his hand touched my waist, and then it dipped into my shirt a little bit, and so I moved my hands in his shirt too. He made a move, and I wanted to prove that I was brave so I mirrored it. And when he reached my bra I tensed. He tensed too, and in that moment I realized that it was really happening – Paul Lahote had his hand on one of my tits, and I could feel him through his jeans. Back then it had me blushing at the idea of a boner touching me through jeans, but I was also proud 'cause I _did_ that. I was the one to make him hard."_

"_I guess it's only fair that as best friends the first pair of boobies we ever saw were the same ones._"

Paul could hear the smugness in Jared's voice, and his blood began to boil. "What the hell are you talking about?!" he didn't know that Jared saw Cassie's breasts before! When the hell was that?! Why wasn't _that_ ever in a memory?!

Cassie started to laugh, and Paul imagined that she was red in that moment, "_Shit, I forgot about that! I was so embarrassed that day, but I was just so freaking happy that you were the one who jumped off the cliff with me instead of Jacob, like it was originally meant to be. Can you imagine if he was the one I was with when my top broke off? I don't think he'd have pulled himself together long enough to dive down for the top before the others reached the beach. You gawked for a few seconds, but he'd probably have gawked for a couple of minutes. And then everyone would have seen my tits that day._"

"I'm going to kill you, Jared!" surprisingly it was Seth who groaned, and Paul responded with a quick slap to his head.

"_Paul can think he saw them first, but I saw them that summer before him, so it's cool._"

Paul was seething outside, but inside of the house, Cassie was laughing to the point that she was snorting. "_At least you just looked at them like whoa! Lahote stared at them as if he'd never seen tits in a porn before. But you told me you guys did, but you wouldn't think so the way he looked when I pulled off my bra. It was like a kid in a candy store, and I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing at him._"

"I don't think I wanna hear it from her point of view anymore..."

"_He was really shy that day, and that's what kept me telling him it was okay. He kept testing things out, but he'd never push it without either asking me if it was okay or giving me a questioning look. I nodded my head every time even though I knew I shouldn't have. But it made it easier because I wasn't expecting anything out of it. He hated me, and I accepted it, but in that moment he wanted me and I was sure I'd never have the chance again. I willingly allowed Lahote to keep pushing his limits because I felt special._"

Paul winced, and he looked up at Embry with a sadness in his eyes, "If I knew she only went along with it 'cause she had a crush on me, and liked feeling special for a day, I'd never have gone forward," at least he liked to think he wouldn't have.

"_It was like he was possessed or something, and I kept thinking that he'd snap out of it and take off screaming once he realized who he was with, but he kept just being really sweet to me. He was gentle with his words, and he spoke softly with even softer touches, and the way he looked at me…_"

Paul blushed, and looked away when Seth and Embry both stared at him curiously, and he began to fear for his life when he saw Sam approaching them. He knew that Sam was out running, and that he would hear about this when the other two phased, but he didn't think he'd come out to listen to Cassie speaking directly. "Why didn't you tell her about the imprint?"

Shrugging, he avoided everyone's eyes, "I'm just not ready."

"_And the way he looked at you, what? How did he look at you?_" Cassie trailed off, and Jared was curious now too – _why _did Paul keep her a secret for six years?

"_Promise you won't laugh at me, Jared. I'm a big girl now, and I know it's impossible, but back then I was fifteen years old with a crush on a hot guy that had temper problems and beat some guy up while defending me – I swear that he looked at me as if he only saw me. I don't know how to explain it really, but it's like… okay, have you ever seen the way that Sam looks at Emily?_"

Paul's eyes widened, and Sam stared down at him in shock. The other two had dropped jaws. "That's impossible!" Paul said quickly, shaking his head, "I wasn't a wolf then – the fever was nowhere near to kicking in yet! You've met Emily lots of times before becoming a wolf, and not once did you ever look at her like that until you saw her for the first time after the fever kicked in!"

Inside of his room, Jared was staring at Cassie like she lost her mind, "_What? Look, you were fifteen, and you did have a thing for him back then – it was probably a trick of your mind._"

"_Yeah, I know that now. But that day I swear he looked at me in the same way that Sam looked at Emily. And so, when his hands reached my button and zipper, I took only a second to put my hands on his jeans as well. He was the one who pulled away to ask me if I was sure. I think he was more nervous than I was, actually. We talked about it, and we were both virgins, and I wanted to make sure he wouldn't go bragging to all of you. And when he promised me that he wouldn't I believed him. And then he ran out to grab his backpack 'cause he had condoms._"

"Are you gonna stay here for this, Sam?"

He nodded his head, "Yeah."

Standing up, Paul shook his head, "I'm not. I was there, I know what happened."

"This is the only way you'll find out how she really feels about you…" Seth said slowly.

Paul started to shrug his shoulders, so Jared said, "_You know what… I'm starting to realize how gross it is that you lost your virginity to Paul. But now I'm really curious – why did you move? When I last spoke to you, you were leaning towards staying. And then suddenly you were ignoring me, and then you show up at my house telling me you're moving to Wyoming._"

Paul froze, and they all heard Cassie sigh, "_It was easy to give myself to Lahote with the thoughts that he'd leave once it's done, and then everything could go back to normal with him being a prick to me._ _But he stayed instead – he stayed, and he kept asking me if I was okay. He even ran to the bathroom to get a washcloth to clean me up down there, and clean himself off too. I expected him to leave, but he pulled me into his arms… and then the promises came…_"

The three outside gave Paul all shocked looks; not seeing this part in the memory that he showed to Embry and Jared that day. "_What promises?_"

"_Stupid things…_"

"They weren't stupid," uttered Paul, feeling so ashamed of himself, "I was just an asshole."

"_Like what?_"

"_I admitted that I hated the name Casper 'cause not only was it racist, but 'cause everybody always hated Casper except for that one girl. His own family despised him, and ridiculed him, and I admitted to Lahote that it hit too close to him 'cause my birth parents didn't want me. So, he promised to never call me Casper again._"

Jared's voice was tense, "_Didn't he call you that the next morning at school when you approached us?_" Cassie must have nodded her head 'cause he released a growl. Paul was relieved to see that Jared's growl had no effect on Cassie the way his did. "_That fucking asshole! What else did he promise you, Cass?_"

"_He'd be nicer, and that we'd be friends. I told him I'd like that – the whole being friends thing, and he was the one who told me how it'd be different from then on, and how he'd treat me like the rest of you did. I told him some things in those thirty minutes, just small and simple things, but for the first time I willingly allowed myself to be vulnerable with someone other than you, Sam, Leah, or even Emily. It would have been so much easier if he just left and went back to hating me, but then he had to be nice. And that's what fucked me up – he already got what he wanted, so why the hell be nice afterwards? I allowed myself to believe him, despite the fact that I knew I was being so fucking foolish, and that was the worst pain I felt in all my life the next morning at school. I avoided you 'cause I was afraid you'd ask me what was wrong, and I'd tell you. And I didn't want you to know; I didn't want you to be ashamed of me for being so stupid._ _And so, I told my mom to take the job 'cause I didn't wanna see him anymore. I couldn't look at him without hating myself._"

Paul's knees buckled, and he sat back down on the chair. He could feel his imprint being in another guy's arms, but by the way they could all hear her sniffling, he knew that Jared was just comforting his best friend. He knew that he fucked up, and he knew that he hurt her that day, but now that he knew _why_ it hurt her, he had actual tears in his eyes. Inside of the house, Cassie wasn't crying but she was sniffling and telling Jared all about how ashamed she felt, and how foolish she felt, and how she couldn't ever trust somebody being nice to her without a motive behind it after that day.

For an hour she explained to Jared, while the other four listened from outside, about how she slowly fell into a whirlwind of one-nights because every guy she dated cheated on her. She refused to fight for a guy 'cause they would still sleep with the other chick later, and she didn't see the point in fighting for someone that's only going to fuck her over. She went from an innocent fifteen-year-old girl with a crush on a bad boy to a cynical twenty-one-year-old still crying over the same kid.

"_If he fucked with your mind that bad to make you completely change yourself over in six years, why sleep with him when you moved back?_" everyone outside agreed with the question. Even Paul wanted to know why she still kept fucking him.

"_We fuck, Jared. There's no sleeping involved, and there's no cuddling this time either. Once he pulls out, I'm already searching for my clothes_," Sam glared at Paul.

"_Whatever – why keep doing it?_"

"_I don't really know. 'Cause he's good at it?_" giving the other three outside a smug look, Paul liked her excuse. "_We hooked up more than twice since I've been back, Jared._"

Jared feigned innocence, "_What_?"

"_I was happy that he was avoiding me in the first two weeks I've been back, and then when I saw him at your house that day I felt old feelings return – feelings of a hurt little girl moving to a different state just to avoid the boy she liked that hurt her in return. And then I saw him at the house, and then that night in the forest – we were alone together for the second time in our lives, and he had his arms caging me in… and he definitely grew up. And he was apologizing for everything that happened, and it was like deja-vu. It was quick, and it was fun, but it had me wanting me more by the end of the night. The first time I had him we were both too nervous and inexperienced to really enjoy it, and then that night in the forest it was like we both waited too long for something never meant to happen. I don't think either of us lasted even a minute. And I wanted him a third time."_

"_That day in your room, right?_ _When I came over and heard you guys?_"

"_No…_" she sighed, and Paul was stunned to hear no regret in her voice whatsoever. "_I'll save you the details, since you didn't wanna hear about the first time completely, but I was already frustrated from the night before. You've heard my stories, Jared – I don't like just a quick night. So, I'm already frustrated, and I had this very vivid dream about him that night, and when I went downstairs, I saw him in the kitchen. So, I was already turned on by the time we entered Forks, especially since it was an awkward truck ride talking about that day after school, and sex in general, and then we ran into this chick in town; Rosalie?_"

"_Yeah, I know her._"

"_Right… well, she's hot. And I saw them talking, and whispering with each other, and despite what they both said I know they fucked at least once._"

"We didn't!"

"_And I guess maybe I got a little jealous. Not that I'll ever admit it to him, or talk about it again with you, but there was a little jealousy there. I think it's more because I wanted to fuck him again at least once, and he was flirting with her._"

"There was no flirting with the leech that day… or any other day."

"_And he knew it. He made a comment about me being jealous, so I told him to bite me. The bastard got in my ear about how he already did – twice – and then asked if it was an invitation. I'm not fifteen anymore, Jared, and you know how much I love to tease guys._"

"_I remember you texting me one night to give you lines to say to this guy hitting on you._"

"No more texting her lines, Jared."

"_Exactly! Well, I didn't need anyone to text me lines; I had a good one already. And then I made it known that it doesn't matter who else he fucked, and that I had no need to get jealous, 'cause I'm the one that broke him in. I had him first!_"

"_Right…_"

"_So, he's hard, right? I see him adjusting himself all day when I do certain things, and I'm already fucking wet. But he doesn't strike me as the kind of guy willing to fuck in a parking lot, so I decided to tease him all day instead. It was fun, and it took my mind off of the wedding. But then Rosalie invited us out to lunch, and we're talking, and she asks me about the tattoo on my back – the crow and butterfly. Turns out Lahote's crow tattoo is for the same song._"

Sam looked at him in confusion, "Seriously?"

Annoyed that Cassie spilt the beans on that as well, Paul reluctantly nodded his head, "Yeah."

"_Oh god,_" Jared said in disgust, "_You mean to tell me that when I met you guys at the house you were both freshly fucked?_" they all felt Jared's guilt at having to lie and pretend right now. When Cassie finally found out the truth, he'd have a lot of explaining to do – they all would!

"_Yeah. He was innocent that time. I made him drive out to the cliffs, and then I started making out with him and teasing him. No details to scar you, but I made my mark that time – I made damn sure that he'd remember me. I wasn't a virgin, and it wasn't a quickie in a forest – although he couldn't really seem to last that day either._"

"Shut up, Seth!"

"_The day that you caught us – I was… nobody was home, and Sam's been keeping me locked up in the house lately so I couldn't go out to a bar or anything, and it's like every time I turned around Lahote was there. So, I took things into my own hands._"

"_It's not the first time, Cass,_" chuckled Jared. Paul would have to have a talk with him about his conversations with Cassie soon – he couldn't keep talking to her about her sex life without letting him know about it.

"_No, I know… but it was the first time I didn't need to read some kind of erotica or watch porn…_"

"That is more information than I ever needed to know, or wanted to know, about my baby cousin!"

"_I was gonna look something up on my laptop, but then I started to see Lahote in my mind. And then I thought back to the night in the forest and he just picked me up and slammed me into the tree – oh, sorry, you probably don't wanna hear about how I pictured him. Anyway, so I'm doing that, and all of a sudden my fucking door is being kicked in and he's standing there looking ready to kill someone. And then suddenly his fingers are replacing my own, and next thing I know I hear you outside and realize we've been caught. At least that time it lasted. I don't think I'd have handled another minute or three minute session._"

"It was an hour," Paul said boldly, reminding them all that he could last for much longer than just a minute or three, "And we only stopped 'cause she heard Jared."

"_Paul's the first guy that you've slept – fucked – more than once, Cass since… Obviously there's something there. Especially since you made that rule._"

"_Yeah, lust – and can you believe that fucking asshole tried to make it into something more today? Telling me some bullshit story about how he never hated me, which is why I thought you betrayed me 'cause what are the odds of him saying that with our past, right? And then he goes into how he belongs to me and I belong to him – he ruined it! He ruined it by having emotions. He ruined it by not hating me! He and I aren't friends, and I liked what we had._"

"_Then why have you been avoiding him since the day at the house?_"

"_I have to get everything ready for the wedding, and it's like every time he comes around me, I just want to drag him somewhere._"

"That's a good reason to ignore me."

"No, it's not!"

"_Then why freak out today? We saw you guys fighting after you walked away from the fight when telling him to check on Nikki, after he sort of made it known to all of us that he only wants you._"

"_Yeah, and that's another thing – what the fuck did he do that for? I don't want all of you guys to know that he and I have ever touched each other before. It's bad enough you and my cousin caught us, and most likely told the guys, but two quick fucks is one thing – now everyone on the rez is definitely gonna know that these bruises are from him. I don't need people knowing that._"

"_Are you ashamed of him?_"

"_He can't even say my name, Jared. Why do I want everyone here to know I'm fucking the guy that nicknamed me Casper, and still doesn't call me Cassie?_" there was a long silence, and then a hushed whisper, "_Did you mean it when you said I can talk to you about this?_"

"_Yeah_."

"_Do you still like me like that_?"

"_No_."

"_Are you lying to me right now?_"

"_No._"

"_Do you promise you won't say anything to anyone?_"

"_Of course I won't._"

"_Do you really want to know why I kept going back?_"

"Tell her yeah."

"_Yeah._"

"_I like it when he calls me Cassie. He only says it when he's cumming, but I like it. I like my name on his tongue,_" Jared's breath hitched, "_Is that sad? I don't understand it, and I don't know why – but I really like it when he calls me Cassie._"

Using a sheet to block his closet from view now, and keeping all of his clothes stacked neatly in piles on the floor until he can run into Forks to pick up a new dresser, Paul was freshly showered and lying on his bed. He left after hearing Cassie ask Jared if he could forgive her for once thinking Paul was worth her soul. Sam left the same time as him, but the other two stayed back in case Jared's anger returned.

He wished he didn't hear anything that she said, and twenty minutes after he left he got a text from Seth saying that Jared told her he's willing to put aside his disgust to listen to the details if she still wanted to give them to him.

Apparently he was the reason she pierced her nipples – she liked when he nibbled on them that day.

The wolf was on mute now, and he noticed that all of the emotions he felt were from the human side instead. And they were all mixed and confused: guilt, rage, fear, worry, smug, happy, depressed… they were on a rinse cycle; each tumbling into each other.

But then he missed her.

The wolf didn't miss the imprint; Paul missed Cassie.

"Paul, what are you doing here?"

Giving Sam a cautious look, Paul licked his lips. "I have to talk to her."

Sighing, Sam rubbed his forehead, "Emily's at her mom's right now since the wedding is tomorrow, and Cassie's trying to finish up last minute things. She just got home half an hour ago."

"I know. I texted Jared to see if she was still there."

"Are you going to tell her about the imprint right now?"

"I decided to wait for a while."

Lifting an eyebrow, Sam stared at him suspiciously, "Why?"

"Because I want her to accept me as Paul before she agrees to take the mark to satisfy the wolf. It's Paul she has a problem with, not the wolf. If she agrees to this imprint, I want to make sure she's agreeing to be with _me_."

"I want to know something," taking in a deep breath, Sam lowered his voice, "And I'm not asking you as your alpha, I'm asking as an older cousin… and as _your_ friend," that meant that Paul didn't have to answer him if he didn't want to. "When did you start to grow feelings for Cassie?"

Paul tensed, and Sam looked surprised to see such a reaction. Licking his lips, Paul ended up shaking his head, "I don't really know."

"But it was before the imprint?" Paul took only a few seconds to nod his head hesitantly, and Sam ended up calling out towards the direction of Cassie's room, "I'M GOING DOWN TO SEE BILLY FOR SOMETHING ABOUT TOMORROW! YOU HAVE A VISITOR!"

Paul had a headache. There were too many questions and facts being thrown at him at once in a day, and he couldn't remember them all.

"What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see you."

He expected her to sigh, but instead she brought her arms over her chest and leaned against the kitchen counter. "I talked to Jared."

"About what?" hopefully one day soon he didn't have to pretend not to know things anymore. It was tiring, and it only made his guilt worsen.

Giving him a curious look, something he noticed everyone's been doing lately, Cassie watched his face closely, "Why did you defend me that day, Lahote?"

"I saw your tears."

"And why did you come to my house?"

"To bring you your books, and to make sure you were alright. I never saw you cry before."

"And why did you kiss me?"

"I wanted to."

"And everything else – why did you let it get that far?"

"I was a fifteen-year-old boy, and I wanted it."

"And if I said no?"

"Then I'd have left your house still a virgin."

"And now – why that night in the forest? Why allow it in the truck? Why come into my room, and finish me off?"

Her question caught him off guard, and it made him slightly uncomfortable. "I wanted to," she fell silent, no longer asking questions so he pushed his luck with her, "Why did you get pissed with me earlier and then mention Jared? Why did you have to talk to him?"

"I liked you back then," she said boldly. She stared him directly in his eyes and said, "Before I left, I liked you. I liked you for a couple of months, but I didn't tell Jared about it until a few days before you came to my house; something about the whole bad boy vibe. You telling me that you never hated me made me think that day was a set up from a dare. I approached Jared to see if he was in on it – to see if he told you that I liked you and then you both decided to make money from the dares. He knows about that day now… and the day up at the cliffs."

Stunned because he didn't expect her to admit telling Jared the truth, or to hear her tell him about her crush in those days, Paul said, "I realized it after you left when I started to miss you always being around. You were always there, no matter how much I tried to push you away from our group, and then when you left, I noticed it – I noticed that you were gone. I don't think I ever really hated you back then, Uley – I was just an asshole."

It always happened like this.

Not that he was complaining.

Shouting at him that they couldn't go into her room because it was hectic for the next day, Cassie allowed Paul to carry her out into the living room. Mentally apologizing to Sam and Emily, he sat her up on the edge of the couch's back. At least they weren't on the kitchen table. With Cassie's tongue intertwined in his, he wondered how they got here.

Not that he minded it.

They moved quickly as if in danger of being caught, although only Paul knew for a fact that nobody from the pack would come over because of the scents and noises. Brady just ran past the house actually, probably on his way to let the others all know.

Hands were everywhere, and tongues were mixing, and clothes were stripped, and soon he was inside of her. Gasping at the sudden intrusion, Cassie held onto the back of the couch to keep from falling of it. "We should stop!"

Holding tightly onto the pale thighs, already marked and bruised by his fingers, Paul cheated with secret knowledge by smirking down at her, "Do you really want to?"

Throwing her head back, Cassie shook it; causing her long strands to fly everywhere. "Nyaaahhhh – there – god!"

Bringing his mouth down to his favorite spot on her throat, and deciding that any sort of mark was good enough for him, especially so she'd be branded at the wedding the next day, Paul began to nibble at it; drawing out squeals of pleasure from the writhing girl. It wasn't the mark of an imprint, a mark that would remain permanent, but he still claimed her. "I didn't hear you. Do you really want to stop?"

Cassie didn't say anything verbally again, except for a cry to god, so Paul did something daring. "What the hell?" holding onto the edge of the couch's back while keeping her legs around Paul's waist to support herself, Cassie looked up at him with murder in her eyes, "What are you doing?"

Holding his erection in his hand, noticing for the second time in their rushed relations that he didn't have on a condom, Paul drew out a long whine from the panting girl by rubbing his weeping head against her slit; only poking through a little bit. "I asked you if you really wanted to stop."

She looked confused for just a second, and then conflicted, but then soon a smirk spread across her face. And it had Paul shivering at how devious it looked. "And if I said yeah? Would you really walk away right now, Lahote?" she challenged him. "Look at you standing there… panting, hard, and dick weeping. Could you walk away?"

"Could you?" he retaliated, smirking in return. He felt her shiver against him. "Your cunt is dripping for me right now… all on your cousin's couch – he'll be smelling you for weeks," he'd have to work overtime to buy a new couch for Sam. Cassie had no idea how literal he was being at the smell lingering for weeks. Her juices were already soaked into the fabric material.

Leaning forward so that her lips were against his ear, Cassie's smirk never left her face, "The day you caught me with my fingers I was just warming up. I've got a toy that can fill me up just as nicely as you can – will your hand promise the same release a tight cunt can?"

Cassie won.

Responding with a possessive growl, and the mental promise to burn all sex toys to keep her from threatening him again, Paul thrust into her so hard that she lost her grip and fell back. Reaching forward to pull Cassie back up, Paul lifted her off of the couch completely and then turned her around so she had her ass sticking out to him; the wiggling ass also marked by his fingers from gripping on too tightly the last time they were in this position.

Actually screaming out in pleasure with how hard Paul entered her, Cassie shut her eyes, and tightened her grip on the back of the couch, "Faster!" she cried out.

"Fuck!" holding onto her hips tightly, already knowing she'd be bruised once again by the end of this, Paul quickened his pace until the only sounds leaving the girl tightening her cunt walls against his cock so deliciously were short little puffs of breaths. "How are you so fucking tight every time?!"

Moaning when she heard him, Cassie squeezed her inner walls even tighter and then cried out in pain when Paul yanked on her hair to pull her head back. Her body angle changed, and soon her body was convulsing, "F-F-Fuck – Lahooooooote!" she gripped his cock so tightly that Paul was afraid he'd cum already, but he managed to hold back; continuing to fuck her as she saw stars.

"Ride me," he growled, pulling her against him and then lying down on the ground with her on top.

Still trying to catch her breath from her first orgasm, Cassie held onto his erection and hissed, "God!" as she lowered herself onto him. Sitting up straight, and riding his cock just like that day in the truck, Cassie had more room this time to do as she wanted. Paul brought his hands up to her breasts, pinching and pulling on her nipples as she cried out at the touch, and Cassie lifted her hands up into her hair instead of using him for support. Her hips did all the work without him to help guide her, or her holding onto him for support. Her second orgasm came much quicker than her first one.

"Now it's my turn," growling as he flipped them over, Paul brought both of Cassie's legs over his shoulders, earning a squeal from her as she wiggled her body and writhed around in ecstasy at the angle. Entering her at a rapid pace, and knowing that she'd definitely have a hard time walking at the wedding, Paul saw the fresh hickey on the same spot as six years before, and as her body arched beneath him with her nails clawing at the hardwood floors of the living room, he cried out her name with a sound close to a howl. She came in the same moment as him.

Just like the other times, Cassie was the first one standing up and looking for her clothes. Although this time she walked with a slight limp, and she muttered something about a shower and a nap.

"Use the bathroom next time!" argued Sam, slapping Paul's head harshly as he barged into his bedroom. "Or her room – not my fucking couch! I can't watch TV now without smelling my own cousin!"

"We sort of ended up on the floor anyways," and because he was feeling cocky after giving Cassie three mind blowing orgasms within fifteen minutes just a few hours after she told him that they were done fucking, "But I'm sure you can vent to Seth, and he'll understand."


End file.
